Saving the Native Language, an article by John Andrews published in South Dakota Magazine (March / April 2009), takes the reader on an insightful journey through the context and history of the Lakota and Dakota language revitalization movement.
Albert White Hat’s experiences of discrimination and efforts to revitalize Lakota thread through the article and provide a compelling story.
The experience made White Hat determined to save the language and he’s been working at it for over 60 years. In 1999, White Hat’s textbook, Reading and Writing in the Lakota Language was finally published and he continues as a language teacher in the revitalization effort.
According to the article, it was in the 1950s that the Lakota language began to disappear. Today, it’s estimated that only about 10% of Indians living on reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota speak Lakota. The average age of the 8,000 to 9,000 remaining speakers is 65, up from about age 50 in 1993.
Speakers are growing older and younger speakers are not replacing them at significant levels. In 2004, the Lakota Language Consortium (LLC), a Lakota-led nonprofit organization with the mission of revitalizing Lakota, formed to bridge this gap. The article summarizes LLC’s strategy and successes.
The LLC’s comprehensive curriculum plan includes sequenced levels of student curricula, teacher training, as well as documentation and standardization of the language. These approaches work together to multiply the effects of language learning. LLC’s goal is to foster the first 21st century generation of fluent native Lakota speakers.
LLC curricula comprise 16 sequenced levels of language learning designed for elementary school children up through college-level students. The curricula uses proven methods in pedagogy and linguistics to advance students from language basics and sounds to comprehension and putting sentences together and ultimately to higher forms of oral and literary expressions. Currently, 45 schools in the Great Plains use the LLC curriculum and approximately 8,000 children are using LLC textbooks, audio CDs, and other language resources to improve their language abilities.
Training teachers to effectively teach Lakota as a second language is also a key component of LLC’s approach. The Lakota and Dakota people are one of the fastest growing populations in the country and about 50% of the population is under 18 years of age. In June 2009, the LLC held the 3rd annual Lakota Summer Institute at Sitting Bull College where it provided 50 Lakota language teachers with new insight and methods on second language instruction.
In 2008, the LLC took a major step in standardizing Lakota writing and speaking when it published the New Lakota Dictionary. Over 300 native speakers served as consultants during its development and helped to ensure that the bonds between language and culture come alive in its pages and are passed down to language learners.
While the LLC’s approach blends the knowledge of elders and other native speakers with the expertise of linguists and education experts the article points out that other approaches to language revitalization are also important and have added value to the overall effort.
Leonard Little Finger, a former member of the LLC, left the organization to follow his vision of creating an immersion school, the Sacred Hoop School, to honor his ancestors and heritage. And, Albert White Hat, a 20th century Lakota language entrepreneur, helped to cut a path for the modern revitalization movement and continues to promote language learning as a crucial part of culture.
The language revitalization movement has progressed through many stages and embodies diverse but often complimentary perspectives. The article points out that leveraging the successes of all efforts is in the best interest of the Lakota language and People. |
