Republic of Upper Volta Republic of Upper Volta The Republic of Upper Volta (), now Burkina Faso, was a landlocked West African country established on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. Before attaining autonomy it had been French Upper Volta and part of the French Union. On August 5, 1960, it attained full independence from France. Thomas Sankara came to power through a military coup d'état on August 4, 1983. After the coup, he formed the National Council for the Revolution (CNR), with himself as president. Under the direction of Sankara, the country changed its name on August 4,
Alaska Native languages Alaska Native languages For the Alaska Native languages, the years from 1960 to 1970 were, in Michael E. Krauss's words, "a transitional period of rebirth of interest in Alaska Native languages and a shift of developments in their favor". At the time of statehood in 1959, there were twenty indigenous languages spoken within the boundaries of the state of Alaska. Most of these languages belong to one of two large language families: Eskimo-Aleut and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (Na-Dene). Though not included as a modern Alaska Native language, Tsetsaut was spoken in the region of the Portland Canal in southern Alaska at the