ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Sens. Introduce Bill To Support Native American Languages Law360 (April 30, 2021, 6:54 PM EDT) -- Two U.S. senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that proposes to reauthorize the three-decades-old Native American Languages Act and help preserve vanishing native languages by seeking input from tribal members on how to coordinate federal programs designed to protect indigenous identities. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the committee's vice chairman, said Thursday that the Durbin Feeling Native American Languages Act of 2021 is named in honor of Cherokee linguist and Vietnam veteran Durbin Feeling, who died on Aug. 19.