by LauraZ for First People Power Community
This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication
June 15, 2026

Written by Laura Z and Dr. Kevin Inglesby

(In the early spring of 2026, the Federation of Aboriginal Nations of the Americas (FANA) was invited to attend an Accelerated Second Language class taught by Dr. N. Greymorning at the University of Montana. The University also informed the FANA leadership that their representatives were invited to host a symposium for the afternoon session. The representatives decided that the symposium would address Indigenous ethics and diplomacy.

Below is the article reporting on the events on April 13, 2026.)

Dr. Neyooxet Greymorning holds joint positions in the Departments of Anthropology and Native American Studies at the University of Montana. His research weaves together law, politics, Indigenous rights, culture, and language, in which he navigates the complexities of international relations and language feasibility. When he is not researching Indigenous politics, law, and culture, he teaches a language acquisition method he established called Accelerated Second Language Acquisition (ASLA).

Visually grounded and conversationally driven, ASLA is a highly successful methodology for repowering Indigenous languages by providing an organizational framework in which current speakers can strengthen their capacities and new speakers can acquire language competence. On April 13, 2026, the Federation of Aboriginal Nations of the Americas Minister of International Affairs, Principal Sachem Dr. Ronald Yonaguska Holloway, the Federation's Ambassador to the United Nations and the Council of Nimmuog's Deputy First Chair Maria Lorena Cosme, and the Council of Nimmuog's First Seat Holder and Director of Global Communications Dr. Kevin Inglesby were invited to attend and observe an ASLA class in action.

The ASLA class sit-in was the first part of two separate events they were invited to observe and participate in. In the process, they observed different features of ASLA in operation as a pedagogical device and as the driver of a friendly language competition: who can correctly utter the most words associated with a set of pictures, at the greatest speed. Over about 2 hours in a classroom setting, FANA's representatives gained a better understanding of what some of Dr. Greymorning's workshops might look like.

Later that same day, FANA's representatives were invited to give a symposium on Indigenous ethics and diplomacy as it relates to global development. In doing so, Dr. Inglesby provided opening remarks, organizing the dialogue on the basis of a new era of customary Indigenous international law.

By comparing and contrasting key features of the concept of Westphalian sovereignty with the sovereign systems emergent from the Federation, Dr. Inglesby discussed critical features of coordination and strategy that required more extrapolation. FANA's Ambassador to the United Nations, Maria Lorena Cosme, provided the necessary conceptual and applied expansions to drive the dialogue from the concept of sovereignty into an active, approachable framework in which she exemplified what actionable sovereignty may look like in a given set of diplomatic circumstances.

Consensus, merit, noninterference, and ecological awareness are mechanisms through which interpretation becomes action within the frames of Indigenous ethics and diplomacy. Bridging theory and micro-strategic practices with macro-level proceedings, Principal Sachem Dr. Ronald Yonaguska Holloway closed out the section by describing how the personal-level meetings Maria Lorena Cosme described can grow and transition into nation-state implications.

By describing the application of Indigenous ethics towards the concept of diplomacy, Principal Sachem Dr. Ronald Yonaguska Holloway explored how FANA is helping to drive a historic Indigenous free trade zone that is actively helping to repower indigenous systems while reversing the layers of cultural and social destruction propagated by the augers of colonialism.