<p>I am writing this post simply to clarify my previous post. I am looking for a college/university in the continental United States that offer courses teaching the Eskimo and/or Inuit (Alaskan native) language. I am NOT looking for a major in this area- simply a few elective courses, however it would be nice to have a major.</p>
<p>I realized that Alaska is too far and that, if I go to a school in Canada, (since I live in New York, United States), I would receive no financial aid.</p>
<p>I believe I’ve heard people say here that it is Cornell’s policy that if a student wants to take a language they don’t have, they will hire someone to teach it to them. I don’t know how true this is.</p>
<p>Have you run the various college search engines and come up with nothing at all? If so, run those search engines for graduate programs rather than undergraduate programs. What you are looking for may be available through a graduate program in linguistics or anthropology. And before you panic about it, yes undergrads usually can sweet-talk their way into graduate level courses especially when it is something as uncommon as a rarely taught language.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that you go to college wherever you wish, and then take summer courses at U. of Alaska-Fairbanks or another far-north university. That way, you can choose a school that suits you for all your other criteria and in the summers you could have a cultural immersion as well as language acquisition. BTW, here are the Native Alaskan languages offered by UAF:</p>
<p>Ahtna
Aleut
Alutiiq / Sugpiaq
Dena’ina
Deg Xinag
Eyak
Gwich’in
Haida
H</p>
<p>I’ll add that you can reach native fluency without ever taking a class. All you need is 1) initial material to teach you the basics of the language, 2) set of literature to expand your knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of a language, in addition to any other media you can find in the language, and 3) practice speaking and listening, usually through conversation. You can find all of this online, even a conversation partner.</p>
<p>IMO few language programs will be able to teach more to a student with initiative. Worse, a lot of language classes actually make your learning worse than if you were to learn it on your own. (I personally hate language instruction and like to learn languages on my own.)</p>
<p>I don’t want to be one of those unhelpful people that questions your request 
but obviously I am about to do that…</p>
<p>If you think Alaska is too far, why study a native language from the area? Ultimately, if you continue the study, won’t you want to visit or move to the area?</p>