Áta čhó! Two Standing Rock children speak Lakota to the world, as winners of a T-shirt design contest facilitated by LLC for Tatonka, a German outdoor adventure gear company that is also a committed sponsor of Tatanka Oyate Foundation, one of LLC’s partners in the effort to revitalize Lakota.
Thirty Wakpala-Smee students from kindergarten to high school entered designs based on the Lakota proverb, Makȟá kiŋ ečéla tȟéhaŋ yaŋké. – “Only the Earth lasts forever.” The contest was conceived as a fun way to put Lakota words and wisdom into the public eye. The winning designs come from two 5th-graders at Wakpala-Smee Elementary: Thomas Miguel Thompson (Left), first place, and Larissa Little Dog (Right), second place.
Thomas Miguel Thompson is a 10-year-old from Mobridge, SD. Thomas’ first-place design shows a turtle whose shell is the Earth, encircled by the phrase, Makȟá kiŋ ečéla tȟéhaŋ yaŋké. “Only the Earth lasts forever.”
Larissa Little Dog is an 11-year-old from McLaughlin, SD, who says her favorite subjects at school are “reading and writing, but I like math the most.” Her second-place design is a cluster of tipis, with the word wičhóthi, “village,” underneath.
Both students’ family members are involved with the Wakpala-Smee schools as staff, as well as supporting their children’s education.
LLC congratulates the winners and all of the Wakpala-Smee students who entered their drawings. Terri Smith, the Lakota Language Teacher at Wakpala-Smee, says that for the past two years, Wakpala-Smee students have shown the highest test scores in Lakota language on Standing Rock. LLC is grateful to Terri Smith for her efforts to show Lakota children how to begin to find their own Lakota voice, and how that voice can be heard beyond the Plains.
Both Thomas and Larissa will receive iPods from LLC as prizes. These winners and the other Wakpala-Smee entrants will receive free T-shirts from Tatonka which sponsored the contest. Starting next year, the winning T-shirts will be part of Tatonka’s Spring/Summer 2011 clothing line, available in the US through their online cataloge. Tatonka adopted the North American buffalo as their inspiration for excellence and fairness. The company is based in Dasing, Germany, and is considered the European equivalent of Patagonia in the US.
|
