Lakȟóta wičháša waŋ okínihaŋ čha iȟpéya uŋkíyayape ló. Wičháša kiŋ Leonard Little Finger ečíyapi. Líla theȟíyakel oíyokišiče ló. Líla iyóuŋkšičapi.

We honor the memory of Leonard Little Finger, esteemed Lakota elder and one of our founding board members, who passed away on April 8, 2017 in Pine Ridge.

It’s hard to imagine the Lakota Language Consortium today without his early support and encouragement.

In the 1950s, Leonard was one of the first in his generation to leave the reservation for a better education, earning a B.S. from Utah State University. He returned to Pine Ridge to work for the Indian Health Service Hospital, eventually becoming CEO. After retiring from IHS, he received an A.D. in Lakota Studies from Oglala Lakota College at the age of 56, becoming a State certified Lakota Language Instructor.

In the 1990’s one of Leonard’s many initiatives was an organic gardening project that brought German students to Pine Ridge each summer to work alongside local tribal members.

Leonard also partnered on several early language projects in the ’90s, which evolved into an integrated vision for teaching Lakota that informs our work today. When the Lakota Language Consortium was established in 2005, Leonard was a natural fit for our first board, where he served for  3/12 years.

Leonard later helped establish the Lakota Language Consortium and its early projects, including the memorable 2006 visit to Pine Ridge by legendary German rock star Peter Maffay to help bring attention to the project.

Leonard Little Fingers’ passing is another reminder of how fleeting the language is, and the crisis we’re facing. We can’t take for granted any of the speakers who are still around.

Wičháša kiŋ lé líla wawókiyiŋ na Lakȟól’iyapi kiŋ glukínipi kiŋ él íškiŋčiye ló. Tȟokátakiya kiksúya uŋk’úŋpi kte ló.

German rock star Peter Maffay with Leonard Little Finger

Sat-Sun April 8-9, 9 am-5 pm

Hampton Inn – Chicago North Shore
5201 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, IL

Háu mitákuyepi, Chicago — the Lakota Language Weekend is heading your way!! Think of it as a crash course on the Lakota language and culture. Open to all, beginners welcome

The New

Lakota Grammar Handbook

It’s here after nearly two years of development so we’re celebrating with the linguists and native speakers of Lakota who worked with us here at the Lakota Language Consortium to complete the Lakota Grammar Handbook, a 636-page self-study guide we believe is going to become the gold standard for Native American language learning in the U.S.

Both a reference guide and a practice workbook, the Lakota Grammar Handbook is the most comprehensive grammar book ever compiled of the Lakota language and is designed for a wide range of users: from beginning learners to Lakota language teachers, educators who use the native language and linguistic researchers. It’s been a massive undertaking: 19,000 Lakota sentences, including over 11,600 practice sentences, 230 learning units, all taken from the study of authentic narratives and dialogs recorded from hundreds of Lakota speakers.

This is the first Lakota grammar designed primarily for self-study so neither a teacher nor previous experience with Lakota is required to use the handbook effectively. It is also organized progressively, so learners can work their way through it gradually, learning new patterns of the grammar. Each pattern can be practiced in exercises provided for every unit and learners can check their answers in the answer key at the end of the book. It is also packed with important cultural content, for example, how possessive verbs are used in prayers to evoke the relationship to the Creator.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW!

“I don’t think I’ve ever read a better grammar of any North American language,” said Marianne Mithun, a University of California Santa Barbara linguistics professor who specializes in American Indian languages. “This is certainly an extraordinary document that should serve as a model for all others aiming to do the same thing: documenting a language in its full richness and detail, but making it all accessible to motivated and sophisticated readers, as well as linguists.”

It was authored by linguist, fluent Lakota speaker and LLC board member Jan Ullrich with the assistance of fellow LLC board member Ben Black Bear, a first-language Lakota speaker, founder of the Lakota Studies program at Sinté Gleška University and the Lakota Studies and Lakota language teacher at St. Francis Mission School in St. Francis, S.D.

Ullrich thanked Black Bear for the important role he played in consultation, sentence proofing, and in providing the nearly 20,000 audio-recorded language examples and practice sentences that are expected to be used in follow-up audio learning materials, including the forthcoming Owóksape Lakota language on-line learning platform expected to be released in late 2017-early 2018.

“This is the most detailed and accurate grammar of Lakota ever, and will serve as a reference grammar and as a pedagogical grammar for a long time to come,” said Willem de Reuse, a University of North Texas Research Professor whose work has focused on the documentation of endangered languages.

LLC has already begun receiving pre-orders so get your order in today and before the holiday gift-giving season!

“This is the most detailed and accurate grammar of Lakota ever, and will serve as a reference grammar and as a pedagogical grammar for a long time to come.”

– University of North Texas Research Professor

Willem de Reuse

“Wačhí Awášteyalaka he?”

or, “Do You Like to Dance?”

The first in a series of six children’s books to be published solely in Native American languages has been released in the Lakota language. “Wačhí Awášteyalaka he?”, or “Do You Like To Dance,” is an 18-page monolingual Lakota picture book developed for early elementary and preschool children.

Illustrated by Oglala Lakota artist Marty Two Bulls, the book uses the topic of dancing to help children with the use of adverbs and basic question and answer structures. An additional five other picture books will first be released in Lakota, followed by versions in Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan.

Two Bulls, also a sculptor, jeweler and designer from Pine Ridge, S.D., whose satirical cartoons are regular features at the Indian Country Today Media Network, is among three Native American artists who are part of a team illustrating the series being published by The Language Conservancy and the Lakota Language Consortium. The others are Standing Rock Sioux cartoonist and illustrator Omani Luger of Fargo, N.D., and Maliseet artist and animator Tara Audibert.

Each of the books is designed to provide a specific area of language education. In addition to Wačhí Awášteyalaka he?, upcoming titles to be released in Lakota on Dec. 1 will include:

• Gnaškála (Froggy), which introduces time clauses for habitual and past reference activities.

• Šuŋǧíla Waŋ Naǧí Waŋgláke Kiŋ (The Fox Who Saw His Own Shadow), which exposes children to equative, comparative and superlative structures.

• Maká Waŋ Waŋbláke! (I Saw A Skunk), which teaches words for parts of the house and exposes children to the use of prepositions.

• Waúŋyutapi Iyéhaŋtu! (Time To Eat!), which teaches a number of important terms for family members and their reciprocal counterparts.

• Wakíŋyaŋ Aglí (The Storm), which teaches children terms for weather and exposes them to verbs of perception.

“These books are designed to immerse children in their own indigenous languages and to be used as a tool for parents, caregivers and teachers looking to stem the tide of the loss of indigenous languages and to offer an option beyond use of the English language,” said The Language Conservancy Executive Director Wil Meya. “Our aim with these monolingual children’s stories is to provide an opportunity for children to be absorbed in a cultural authenticity that can rarely be provided in the context of reading material.”

All of the children’s books are available for pre-order through bookstores at The Language Conservancy and Lakota Language Consortium websites. Be looking for upcoming announcements for a public reading in Lakota of the picture books at a special children’s book hour at the book store at Prairie Edge Trading Co & Galleries in Rapid City, N.D.

First-Ever Lakota Language Weekend in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is home to an enthusiastic, interested and dedicated group of Lakota language learners, the Lakota Language Consortium learned during its first ever Lakota Language Weekend to be conducted in the L.A. area (Nov. 12-13 at the Four Points Sheraton in Culver City).

About 30 beginners to learning the language came out for the two-day event led by three fluent Lakota speakers – Alayna Eagle Shield, Nacole Walker, Dusty Nelson – all from the Standing Rock area of North Dakota.

The event began with an opening prayer, then went into an introduction to basic sound and language systems, followed by a session of vocabulary learning facilitated through a fun and lively afternoon of circle games that helped participants develop skills for pronouncing animal names, the names of family members, how to introduce one’s self in Lakota and more.

Just as important, according to Elliott Bannister, a Lakota Language Consortium linguist fluent in Lakota who facilitated during the event, participants were provided the direction, tools and knowledge to improve Lakota language skills through self-instruction.

“When participants ‘flew the nest’ that weekend, we wanted them to be equipped to conintue learning at home,” Bannister said. “We want them to be able to apply the language learning techniques they pick up here for their own self-study. Leaving L.A., we recognized there was a very powerful sense of community, a great intimacy, that developed between the participants.”

Be looking for future Lakota Language Weekends in coming months in the cities of Bismarck, Denver and Minneapolis.

The Language Conservancy’s hour-long documentary Rising Voices, which documents the efforts of Lakota tribal members and language rescuers to save the tribe’s native language, will air across the country on the World Channel at 7 p.m. EST as part of Native American Heritage Month.

To view on a station near your, just go to the World Channel website, click on Set Your Station, and your entire zip code to determine what channel Rising Voice will air on.