Before ‘English Only’

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 1, 2025 titled “Designating English as the Official Language of The United States,” as another tool in his administrations anti-immigrant toolkit.

But what languages flourished in what is now the United States before English speaking people arrived? Or before Spanish speaking people arrived?

Thanks to the work of Native Land Digital — an Indigenous-led organization based in Canada — we can easily visualize the richness and diversity of languages and peoples in the Americas and all over the world.

Compared to the multicolored splendor of thousands of Indigenous languages, “English Only” looks a little, well, boring.