Resources for Learning the Lakota Language
The Lakota language, also known as Lakȟótiyapi, faces the challenge of a dwindling number of fluent speakers. With fewer than 6,000 remaining, revitalization efforts are crucial to ensuring its survival for future generations. Fortunately, numerous resources are available for individuals interested in learning and preserving this important language. This article provides an overview of these resources, encompassing language programs, online tools, dictionaries, and other valuable materials.
Language Programs and Curriculum
Recognizing that language instruction alone is insufficient to create fluent speakers, comprehensive Lakota language programs are essential. A K-12 Lakota language curriculum has demonstrated positive outcomes. Furthermore, funding has supported the development of online multimedia tools, Lakota language-based literature, and hands-on activities to encourage language use within families and communities.
- Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa Podcast: Students at Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa have created an all-Lakota language podcast called Wóiwahoye Gluótkuŋzapi Podcast, releasing new episodes every Monday.
- Lakota Immersion Childcare program: The Lakota Immersion Childcare program has created a wealth of Lakota language learning resources that are available online. Memrise is an online learning tool. The Lakota Immersion Childcare program has created 200+ interactive lessons to help you learn Lakota. Resources can be found at www.wayawacikala.com.
- Little Learners: Little Learners provides educational programming for children ages 1-5, all in the Lakota language. Using multimedia tools, focused themes, and experts in revitalizing the Lakota language, Lakota Immersion Childcare, teamed up with DrumSong Media, provides an entertaining and relatable way for young children to learn the Lakota language.
The Language Conservancy (TLC)
The Language Conservancy has developed and distributed over 300 titles in print and digital formats with numerous languages, and they continue to create new innovative resources regularly. These include textbooks, story books, mobile apps, and dictionaries-all are set in motion alongside trained teachers who use these resources to bring language to life within their communities. Access to these materials may be obtained by contacting the Tribe directly.
- Summer Institutes: TLC organizes 2-3 week-long summer institutes, providing beginner and intermediate students and teachers with immersive language learning experiences.
- Language Assessment Tests: TLC has developed an assessment test that meets K-12 assessment requirements in many schools.
Lakota Language Consortium (LLC)
The Lakota Language Consortium (LLC) is dedicated to saving and growing the Lakota language, aiming to ensure its use in every household and that Lakota children are raised as first language speakers. LLC provides resources to enable Lakota parents to speak Lakota daily and Lakota children to become fluent second-language speakers and writers.
- The New Lakota Dictionary: The New Lakota Dictionary features thousands of Lakota word entries, including sample sentences, usage notes, and basic conjugation. It also incorporates various Dakota dialects and regional Lakota differences. Digital versions include recorded words spoken by fluent Lakota speakers.
- Lakhotiya Woglakpa Po! Curriculum Series: The "Lakhotiya Woglakpa Po!" curriculum series can be purchased in the online store.
- Lakota Vocabulary Game: LLC offers a free vocabulary game for Android devices to help users learn different categories of words, such as wild animals, food, and drinks.
Typing in Lakota
Typing Lakota correctly on computers and mobile devices requires installing the Lakota keyboard layout, which can be switched between English and Lakota layouts. It is now possible to type in Lakota via your mobile device and computer!
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Dakota/Lakota Summer Institute at Sitting Bull College (DLSI)
All courses will be available for credit through Sitting Bull College, with participants able to work towards earning an Associate of Science degree in Lakȟótiyapi/Dakȟótiyapi. The Dakota/Lakota Summer Institute at Sitting Bull College is one of several opportunities for summer language learning, with institutes held independently at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, SD and University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND. Since 2007, over 500 teachers from across the globe have attended. DLSI offers an intensive 3-week course for beginners, with schedules that can be customized for each participant and learning level.
Reviews and feedbacks from the DLSI training are always exceptional. It is a professional training experience that has consistently exceeded all expectations and surpasses all previous training events in terms of depth of content. Teachers leave DLSI feeling empowered with new knowledge, techniques and tools.Well-trained DLSI teachers have a direct impact on the amount of Lakota and Dakota language successfully taught in the classroom and on improved test scores.
Online Resources
- Lakota Language Consortium: 20+ videos for adult learners of the Lakota language.
- Wayáwa Čík’ala: "Wayáwa Čík’ala eyápi kiŋ lé wóuŋspe wičhítenaškaŋškaŋ oínažiŋ héčha, na uŋ šna wakȟáŋyeža eyá waníyetu záptaŋ na hé ikhúta iyénakečapi čha Lakȟótiya waúŋspewičhuŋkhiyápi. Wóuŋspe omnáye očháŋku kiŋ wóilag’uŋyaŋpi na tuwáwaka Lakȟótiya wóphikapi čha ilágwičhuŋyaŋpi. Iyápi Glukínipi uŋkíyepi naháŋ DrumSong Media eyápi kiŋ hé kičhíčauŋkič’iyapi na ečhél nuphíŋčaska Lakȟótiyapi wóuŋspe eyá wóimaǧaǧa na oókaȟniȟ waštéšte čha uŋkáǧapi. Na agná tȟáŋkake etáŋ Lakȟól’iya uŋspéič’ičhiyapi čhíŋpi háŋtaŋš iyé kȟó wawíčhuŋkičáǧapi."
- E-books: A listing of ebooks that are available online. Most of these titles are older works in the public domain and can be viewed for free and in many cases downloaded for free by clicking on the links. Many are early works translated into the Lakota/Dakota language, while others relate to Lakota/Dakota history. Although many of these titles may be anachronistic and representative of the age of colonization and assimilation, they may present information useful in the present. Titles are listed in alphabetical order by title. Items from Hathi Trust libraries are viewable and downloadable by the page, while Internet Archive and Google Books materials are viewable and downloadable if in the public domain. Hathi Trust items may also be accessible in Internet Archive and Google Books.
- Dakota Dowapi Kin (Hymns in the Dakota Sioux Language) by Joseph Renville et. Vine Deloria Jr.
- Gramamatik Der Dakota-Sprache by H.C.
- Photograph of Sitting Bull by D.F.
- The Dakotan Languages by A.W.
- The Language of the Dakota or Sioux Indians by F.L.O.
- Woope Mowis owa kin Dakota iapi en Pejuta Wicasta kaga (The law written by Moses, in the Dakota Language by T.S.
Historical and Cultural Resources
Understanding the history and culture of the Lakota people is an integral part of learning the language. Several resources are available for research in Lakota/Dakota history, culture, and language.
- Iapi Oaye: Iapi Oaye was first published in January 1871 and was the newspaper by the Dakota people in Santee, Nebraska, where they were exiled from Minnesota in 1862. During its earliest years, Iapi Oaye, which translates as “Word Carrier,” was written almost entirely in Dakota. It featured articles on local, regional, and world news and events, English grammar lessons, biographies, Christian scripture and doctrine, and facts and figures relating to Dakota communities.
- Dakota Tawaxikitu Kin (The Dakota Friend): Dakota Tawaxikitu Kin (The Dakota Friend) was a bilingual newspaper published for a few short years in the 1850’s by Gideon Pond and the Dakota Mission.
- Sina sapa wocekiye taeyanpaha (The Herald of the Black Robe’s Church): Sina sapa wocekiye taeyanpaha (The Herald of the Black Robe’s Church), 1892-1939. Saint Paul’s Catholic Indian Mission of the Yankton Tribe of the Sioux Indians).
- The Sioux Language by W.A.: The Sioux Language by W.A.
- Award-winning documentary: Award winning documentary that follows an annual ride memorializing the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato Minnesota in 1862.
- South Dakota State University Land Acknowledgement: South Dakota State University acknowledges the land it occupies across South Dakota is the ancestral, traditional and contemporary lands of the Oceti Sakowin (oh-CHEH-tee shaw-KOH-we) meaning Seven Council Fires, which is the proper name for the people referred to as Sioux. We acknowledge that before these sites were named South Dakota State University, they were called home by people of American Indian Nations indigenous to this region. The tribal alliance made up of individual bands of the Seven Council Fires is based on kinship, location and dialects: Santee-Dakota, Yankton-Nakota and Teton- Lakota. We acknowledge the sovereignty of the nine federally recognized Native Nations in South Dakota: Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Flandreau Santee, Lower Brule, Oglala, Rosebud, Sisseton-Wahpeton, Standing Rock and Yankton Sioux Tribes. As a land-grant university, it is our mission to provide access to higher education to all.
- Lakota Values: Lakota values such as bravery, respect, generosity, and fortitude all play significant roles throughout the 20-episode series.
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