Category: 2014

In our last Newsletter we told you about renowned Lakota Flute player Kevin Locke’s desire to re-introduce the traditional indigenous flute tuning and melodies to schools, and the class he led with music educator Richard Dubé at the 2013 Lakota Summer Institute.   The lesson book they co-wrote for playing traditional Native flute nearly ready for publication and shipping in early Spring.  Pre-orders for Šiyótȟaŋka Yažópi!  Play Lakota Flute! – A Traditional Indigenous Flute Curriculum can be made at our online store.

The flutes with traditional tuning can be purchased as a finished item, or as a build-it-yourself kit, from Dubé’s company, Northern Spirit Flutes.

The Audio CD of songs to accompany the lesson book will be available in Summer 2014.

In 2000 the United Nations proclaimed February 21^st International Mother Language Day, making every February 21st a day to recognize and honor all the languages on the planet as

“the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage … and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue,”

as the UN proclamation states.

In the spirit of such recognition, LLC declares February 21st to be Lakota Language Day!

And why not?  We, too, believe that the languages are  “the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage.”

Here are some other reasons to mark a day for honoring Lakota:

1.  Remember the elders who kept Lakota songs, traditions and ceremonies alive;
2. Remember the generations silenced in the boarding schools;
3. Remember the Code Talker soldiers of World War II, who had to keep their service a secret for so long;
4. Remember the civil rights activists of the 1960s and ’70s who fought for Native cultures’ and languages’ right to exist;
5. Honor the speakers who have brought their understanding of the language into classrooms and have done their best to find a way to teach it;
6. Honor yourself and your fellow students for your commitment to learning.

Reviving the Lakota language requires a quiet little revolution in every learner – that much determination, that much dedication, that strong of a decision to go for it.  LLC thinks that the grit shown by Lakota language students and teachers deserves recognition.

So we’ll say it again –  February 21st is Lakota Language Day!

The revitalization movement for Native American languages is a bit the reverse ofwhat UN programs aim for with indigenous languages. UN programs start with tribal peoples who still speak their mother tongues at home and in their villages, but face the choice to give that language up as they seek opportunities and education in more developed areas.

What do you think you could do to make February 21st Lakota Language Day in your home or classroom? Here are some ideas:

• Learn a new word, speak and write it all day when you can;
• Teach someone a new word and practice speaking it with them;
• Text someone in Lakota;
• Write a story in Lakota;
• Ask a speaker to help you with pronunciation or understanding of a word or phrase.
• Making a special day for the language can be a reminder that now is the time to make the language your own – even if it’s just one word or phrase.

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After some delays in 2013, the Level 5 Lakȟótiya Wóglaka Po! Speak Lakota! Textbook is finally

complete! Finished books are scheduled to arrive at the LLC administrative office and shipping department on

April 7, 2014.  Shipping will begin the next day. LLC is now taking pre-orders at our online bookstore.

The K-12 sequence reaches a turning point with Level 5, as this series of lessons will establish the diligent learner

as proficient in Lakota – able to not only speak and understand, but able to create meaningful, spontaneous

conversations.

This textbook is different from Levels 1-4.  It is structured with a continuous storyline throughout the units, as a

pair of moccasins transports one of the girl characters, and then one of the boy characters, back to a Lakota camp

in the buffalo-hunting days. The modern kids are able to befriend other people and experience the life of the

camp because they can speak Lakota.

Introduction to the book’s units and activities will be part of the 2014 Lakota Summer Institute.

New Lakota Dictionary-Online (NLD-O) users have long anticipated the addition of audio files to the digital archive.  Thanks to the work of seven fluent speakers and volunteer linguistic staff last summer, Stage 1 of the
project was completed as the speakers recorded 22,000 words in both male and female voices.  In Stage 2, the Consortium’s code developers are dedicated to editing the sound files and coding to match each individual sound file to the text associated with the word in the NLD-O – so that the audio file comes up when a user keys in a Lakota word.  (Stage 2 still needs funding, in case you know any millionaires.)

Stage 3 will see the NLD-O’s new Audio-enhanced version re-launched in a new web environment, Owoksapee.org – a word meaning “learning place.” The free online forum for the NLD-O will continue as it is.

That trickster Iktomi is at it again – this time he’s after a new wife and is willing to put on a dress to get one.  How well he speaks women’s-voice Lakota just might make a difference!

The loud success of Iktómi Wičhítegleǧa Siŋté Waŋ Úŋ (Iktomi’s Raccoon Hat) in June 2012 at LSI has prompted LLC to adapt two more Iktomi tales for a short Lakota-language play.

Iktómi Lečhála Tȟawíčutȟuŋ (Iktomi’s New Wife) combines the tales “Iktomi and the Ignorant Girl” (American Indian Myths and Legends, Pantheon Books 1984) and “Iktomi’s Blanket” (Old Indian Legends, by Zitkala-Ša / Gertrude Bonnin, University of Nebraska Press 1985).  Who turns out to be Iktomi’s new wife at the end is something we’ve invented ourselves!

As in 2012, rehearsals, staging and production of the play will come out of a Lakota Drama/Performance class (LDL 440, 441, and 442) at the Lakota Summer Institute and will be performed at the Standing Rock High School Auditorium in the final week of LSI, sometime around June 18^th.

Last November, the Lakota language rocketed into the 21^st Century with no looking back: LLC introduced mobile web-access to the the New Lakota Dictionary-Online at the Language Summit in Rapid City the weekend of November 15-16.

The NLD Mobile Dictionary connects your phone with the NLD-O, and is optimized to be faster and more responsive than any other dictionary web-app for a smart phone.  It allows the user to call up Lakota words and find translations and pronunciations, connecting directly to the NLD-O web site but with an interface designed for mobile phone.  This will allow language students to practice speaking anywhere, without feeling tied to a computer terminal or a big printed book.

LLC staff at the Summit saw new users immediately texting friends and sharing the web-app.

If you want the NLD Mobile Dictionary web-app on your phone or iPad, get the free download. Don’t forget to bookmark it once you’ve downloaded!