Per the SSILA, “the linguistic scholarship can take the form of either the documentation, philology, or revitalization of one or more Indigenous languages of the Americas, such that the scholarly community knows significantly more about the language or languages of study as a result of that work. Service can take the form of providing opportunities for others to communicate their work on Indigenous languages, primarily through editorial work, organization of conferences, workshops or institutes, or responsibility for a major archive. Service must expand the opportunities of scholarly communities and should expand opportunities of Indigenous communities as well.
The Prize, which bestows a life membership in SSILA on the recipient, seeks especially to honor those who strive to carry out interdisciplinary scholarship in the spirit of Victor Golla, combining excellent linguistic scholarship in one or more other allied fields, such as anthropology, education, history, or literature