The Lakota-language play, Iktómi Lečhála Tȟawíčutȟuŋ (Iktomi’s New Wife) has its premiere tonight at 7 pm at the Standing Rock High School Auditorium, 9819 Highway 24 in Fort Yates. Admission is FREE.
Blaze Starkey and Peter Hill practice being Meadowlarks
It’s based on two Iktomi stories, one of which is well-known: “Iktomi’s Blanket.” That story was collected in Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Ša, published in 1901.
Ben Black Bear, Jr. as Iktomi
The other is “Iktomi and the Ignorant Girl.” This was collected by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz in the book American Indian Myths and Legends, published in 1984, and the story is recounted as one from the “Brule Sioux” people.
Tasha Hauff as Ignorant Girl and Ben Black Bear, Jr. as Iktomi.
Picture this: two oral-tradition stories were written down in English, then adapted in English to be one story for the theater. Then that story was translated into Lakota by the actors – and back into English for supertitles projected for the audience!
Director Steve Elm and Blaze Starkey
Iktómi Lečhála Tȟawíčutȟuŋ (Iktomi’s New Wife) has its first performance on Thursday night, June 19, at 7 pm, at the Standing Rock High School Auditorium: 9189 Highway 24, Fort Yates, ND, Standing Rock. The Director is Steve Elm(Oneida), a professional actor-writer-director based in New York and Virginia.
Admission is FREE, so come on down and bring your friends!
L-R: Dr. Laurel Vermillion, Sec. Jewell, VP Academics Koreen ResslerRon Lessard and Dr. VermillionL-R: Sec. Jewell, SRST Chairman Dave Archambault, elder speaker Ben Black Bear, Jr.
The visit, which happened Friday, June 13, drew Standing Rock tribe members away from the Sitting Bull College campus for the entire day. We’ll have a report on the day soon – as there was a significant event for Native languages on Saturday, June 14, in the backwash of that visit.
The second week of LSI saw a return to a strong focus on the Lakota language, after the friendly welcome given to the MHA Nation and Crow Nation Summer Institutes getting their start.
Dr. Lanny Real Bird
Dr. Lanny Real Bird of the Crow nation stayed on, and taught his course on Plains Sign Language.
Albino Junior Garcia
Junior Garcia stayed on, too, after leading classes last week on Teaching Methods for the Crow Level 1 textbooks. In Week 2 he led Teaching Methods for Lakota Levels 1 and 2 textbooks.
Kim Campbell
Longtime LSI Instructor Kim Campbell presented on Teaching Methods for Lakota Levels 3 and 4 textbooks.
Jan Ullrich
LLC Linguistic Director Jan Ullrichcontinued teaching Lakota Grammar and language Intensives.
The dynamic energy of LSI is something you can feel in the halls at SBC, says LLC Executive Director Wil Meya. “People’s brains are so full, there’s so much learning happening,” he said. “We turn the whole place upside down, the place is full of movement and voices. This year was especially electric with all the younger people joining in – LSI is building a vital group of language activists, and gathering new activists on board.”
And then this happened:
SRST Chairman Dave Archambault and President Barack Obama
And this, on Saturday:
L-R: Jan Ullrich, Sunshine Archambault Carlow, William Mendoza, Ron Lessard, Wil Meya, Kim Campbell
William Mendoza (Oglala – Sicangu Lakota), the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, and Ron Lessard (Mohawk – Abenaki), Strategic Advisor for Native American Affairs, were at Sitting Bull College on Saturday to join a roundtable of tribal leaders, students, educators, higher education officials and others to discuss successes and challenges in language preservation.
Oneida Native Steve Elm doesn’t speak Lakota – but that doesn’t stop him from having a blast at the Lakota Summer Institute!
Steve Elm
Steve is a polished theater pro from New York City who has worked with renowned Native American theater companies and artists, writing, directing and performing in original works. His work helping school kids create their own emotionally powerful theater pieces – and training teachers on how to use theater skills in their classrooms – brought him to LSI to direct the new Iktomi play, Iktómi Lečhála Tȟawíčutȟuŋ (Iktomi’s New Wife).
Steve Elm and Waniya Locke
We caught up with Steve on June 11, halfway through the three-week rehearsal process.
“Today was the first day we had the full cast, and we started rehearsing in Lakota today,” Steve said. “I have no speaking knowledge of Lakota, but fortunately the three lead actors – Iktomi, his Wife, and the Ignorant Girl – are all strong. We worked in English last week, playing around and working out the dramatic objectives” of the story, he said, while “rewriting and restructuring” to accommodate the number of people who would be in the cast.
Blaze, Peter Hill, Sandra Black Bear, John Vandeveer, Tasha Hauff, Waniya Locke
The script blends two traditional Iktomi tales: “Iktomi’s Blanket” and “Iktomi and the Ignorant Girl.” The stage story is that Iktomi and his old Wife have had yet another fight, and Iktomi is determined to find a new, young wife. Naturally, Iktomi’s deceit blows back on him.
Tasha Hauff as Ignorant Girl, and Ben Black Bear, Jr. as Iktomi
“We started translating the script yesterday,” Steve said, which meant changing the dialogue. “Lakota has different ways of saying things, and different meanings,” Steve explained, “which changed the jokes.”
Working with non-professional actors to develop their own expression in their own language is a challenge for Steve, but an intriguing challenge. A big part of the story hinges on the differences between how Lakota men speak, and how the women speak. In traditional times, the two genders were kept strictly separated, so that each came to say certain words and sentences in their own way.
“To me it’s like directing a play, only I don’t know the words,” he said. “What I do know is the feeling of the objectives behind the actors. Even with supertitles [translations projected above the stage], the audience should have a good idea of what’s happening.”
Waniya Locke sees what’s happening …
Iktómi Lečhála Tȟawíčutȟuŋ (Iktomi’s New Wife) will be performed on Thursday, June 19, at 7 pm at the Standing Rock High School Auditorium,9189 Highway 24, Fort Yates, ND. Admission is free.
The MHA and Crow Nations have finished their first Summer Institutes, initiating language education and revitalization programs based on carefully planned K-12 curricula and proven second-language education methods.
The MHASI and CSI co-located with LSI at Sitting Bull to breathe in the atmosphere of dynamic, “can-do” enthusiasm for learning and teaching Native American languages.
The Crow and MHA Nations were formally welcomed and acknowledged in the Lakota Summer Institute opening ceremony last Monday, which established an atmosphere of respect and safety, as well as hope, energy and enthusiasm.
The MHASI will relocate to Fort Berthold Community College in Fort Berthold, ND next year.
Lakota teacher Albino Junior Garcia came to both MHASI and the Crow Summer Institute to coach Crow and MHA teachers in Total Physical Response and the use of flashcards with their Level 1 textbooks. He has taught Special Projects and Teaching Lakota Methods at the Lakota Summer Institute since 2012 and taught Teaching Crow Level 1 in 2013.
Armik Mirzayan came over from the Lakota Summer Institute to teach Arikara Phonology at MHASI as well.
Teacher and LSI Instructor Courtney Yellow Fat meets a young language student
Many of the second-language speakers and students at LSI are parents of young children, and they are determined to pass the Lakota language on. One of these is Denny Gayton, of Standing Rock.
Denny Gayton
Denny told us he has brought his two children with him to LSI this year, because “I want them to have the passion, to grow in the language. They want to learn it, but they have not had the environment – except at our house – where people are excited about it or even meaningfully encouraging about it.”
What he sees happening at LSI is something very powerful: “Here, people are excited and free,” he said, “using the language, talking and not afraid to make mistakes. They either self-correct or someone will offer a correction for them to use.”
As an enthusiastic second-language student, Denny taught an evening class himself at last year’s LSI. “This year I’m taking all of the same classes again – Teaching Methods in the morning and Intensive for Intermediates in the afternoon – so I can have fun with the language.”
For even more fun, Denny is helping LLC with an experiment – Lakota translations of these updates. Watch for those!
Coming up this week, Teaching Lakota/Dakota II, more Language Intensives, and the return of Northern Plains Sign Language, with Dr. Lanny Real Bird of the Crow Nation. Dr. Real Bird brings back instruction in nearly 200 hand signs that were the common language between many, many tribes in the pre-reservation era.
It seems that language itself is bringing together Northern Plains tribes these days. With the emergence of language education and revitalization efforts in the Crow, MHA and other Plains nations, one can see the rising point of view that all tribes are in the same situation when it comes to their languages: it’s time to start learning, so that they won’t be lost.
The MHA and Crow Nations finished their first Summer Institutes on Friday, inaugurating language education and revitalization programs based on carefully planned K-12 curricula and proven second-language education methods. The MHASI will relocate to Fort Berthold Community College in 2015. Their kickoff at Sitting Bull College, coinciding with LSI, was facilitated by the Language Conservancy, with support from Sitting Bull and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The Crow and MHA Nations were formally welcomed and acknowledged in the Lakota Summer Institute opening ceremony last Monday, which established an atmosphere of respect and safety, as well as what LLC Executive Director Will Meya said was “hope, energy and enthusiasm that is really contagious.” Both Nations’ Institutes provided the attending teachers with brand-new Level 1 textbooks that sparked a leap in energy and focus.
Meya noted that it can get very lonely for severely endangered languages like Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, whose teachers and remaining speakers have done their best to keep the languages available to the tribes. Inclusion in a large, positive crowd of teachers and staff at Sitting Bull “was so new, and unlike what they’re used to, they could see right away why it’s so important to come down” to Fort Yates, Meya said. The opportunity to dive deep into language study and practice was unusual and appreciated, he said.
The energy of the young people at LSI keeps the elders on their toes!
Board Work
It’s clear the long, hard work of the elders has paved the way for this wave of younger students …
A good connection …
… and the elders’ enthusiasm keeps them moving forward.
It must be Friday …
Today, Friday, is the end of Section 1 for the intensive language study classes. And that means tests!
Next Friday, of course, is going to be something special! Everyone is supercharged about the news of President Obama’s visit to the powwow on Standing Rock on June 13th. Classes will let out early so everyone can go welcome him and the First Lady. https://youtu.be/gK1dr0ylvwE
