Unfortunately, Lakota is dangerously close to extinction. Recent linguistic surveys, anecdotal evidence, and the 2000 US Census reveal that the situation for the language is very serious.

The map below illustrates the self-identified Lakota speakers from the 2000 census. Estimates suggest that speaker populations have decreased an additional 25-30% since then. According to these figures, Lakota speakers of all abilities, on and around the reservations of North Dakota and South Dakota amounted to between 8300 and 9000 persons, representing just 14% of the total Indian population. The map illustrates the differing linguistic situation on the reservations, ranging from a high of 25% on the Pine Ridge Reservation to a low of 4% on the Lower Brule Reservation. National statistics for the Sioux also mirror this analysis. Among the 102,619 Sioux, age 5 and over, in 2000, only 15% spoke their language (2000 US Census).

Not only are Lakota speakers becoming fewer in number, they are also becoming older. According to earlier linguistic surveys, in 1993 the median age was for a Lakota speaker was over 50 years old. Today, the average Lakota speaker is near 65 years old. These existing speakers are dying and are not being replaced by new Lakota-speaking generations. According to our recent analysis, the language stopped being transmitted inter-generationally during the mid-1950s. Our effort to reverse this language shift relies on creating new generation of Lakota speakers while there are still native speakers available to be teachers.

There are many reasons for this difficult state of affairs, including the large-scale colonial pressures exerted since contact. Perhaps the most visible explanation was the deliberate campaign by the U.S. government to eliminate native language use through the boarding school system. Between 1877 and 1920 it spent to over $2 billion, in contemporary dollars, on Indian boarding schools. Conservative estimates place the percentage of Lakota boarding school students at ten percent. Figured in this way, the federal government spent over $200 million dollars on boarding schools alone in its effort to replace Lakota with English. The process created numerous generations of Lakotas raised away from their parents and community and unable to speak the language.