Posted on October 4, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

‘LEAP’ Forward for Lakota Language – UND Today

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‘LEAP’ Forward for Lakota Language

[/fusion_title][fusion_title title_type=”text” rotation_effect=”bounceIn” display_time=”1200″ highlight_effect=”circle” loop_animation=”off” highlight_width=”9″ highlight_top_margin=”0″ before_text=”” rotation_text=”” highlight_text=”” after_text=”” title_link=”off” link_url=”” link_target=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” content_align_medium=”” content_align_small=”” content_align=”left” size=”3″ animated_font_size=”” fusion_font_family_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_title_font=”” font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” animated_text_color=”” text_shadow=”no” text_shadow_vertical=”” text_shadow_horizontal=”” text_shadow_blur=”0″ text_shadow_color=”” margin_top_medium=”” margin_right_medium=”” margin_bottom_medium=”” margin_left_medium=”” margin_top_small=”” margin_right_small=”” margin_bottom_small=”” margin_left_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”10px” margin_left=”” margin_top_mobile=”” margin_bottom_mobile=”” gradient_font=”no” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ highlight_color=”” style_type=”default” sep_color=”” link_color=”” link_hover_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]UND College of Education lands $1.4-M federal grant to prepare next generation of teachers in indigenous linguistics[/fusion_title][fusion_separator style_type=”single solid” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” flex_grow=”0″ top_margin=”10px” bottom_margin=”10px” width=”200px” alignment=”left” border_size=”3px” sep_color=”#8b1b1f” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” icon=”” icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” /][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”12″ line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

David Dodds | UND Today | October 4, 2018

[/fusion_text][fusion_imageframe image_id=”11719|full” aspect_ratio=”” custom_aspect_ratio=”100″ aspect_ratio_position=”” skip_lazy_load=”” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” max_width=”” sticky_max_width=”” align_medium=”none” align_small=”none” align=”none” mask=”” custom_mask=”” mask_size=”” mask_custom_size=”” mask_position=”” mask_custom_position=”” mask_repeat=”” style_type=”” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” hover_type=”none” margin_top_medium=”” margin_right_medium=”” margin_bottom_medium=”” margin_left_medium=”” margin_top_small=”” margin_right_small=”” margin_bottom_small=”” margin_left_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” z_index=”” caption_style=”off” caption_align_medium=”none” caption_align_small=”none” caption_align=”none” caption_title=”” caption_text=”” caption_title_tag=”2″ fusion_font_family_caption_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_caption_title_font=”” caption_title_size=”” caption_title_line_height=”” caption_title_letter_spacing=”” caption_title_transform=”” caption_title_color=”” caption_background_color=”” fusion_font_family_caption_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_caption_text_font=”” caption_text_size=”” caption_text_line_height=”” caption_text_letter_spacing=”” caption_text_transform=”” caption_text_color=”” caption_border_color=”” caption_overlay_color=”” caption_margin_top=”” caption_margin_right=”” caption_margin_bottom=”” caption_margin_left=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″]https://lakhota.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/181004-leapforward.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”12″ line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]UND’s College of Education & Human Development recently secured a $1.4-million federal grant to train the next generations of teachers in the Lakota language. Graduates eventually will teach elementary and secondary learners at tribal and reservation schools in North Dakota and South Dakota. Photo by Tyler Ingham/UND Today.[/fusion_text][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

New Yorkers rescue all manner of things – pets, people and lost things. This weekend, they have an opportunity to do something exceedingly rare: Help rescue a language.

The language is Lakota, spoken by the Native American people, and it is “dangerously close to extinction,” according to the Endangered Languages Project. It estimates just 2,000 people speak Lakota as a first language, primarily on reservations in North and South Dakota. That’s about 2% of the total population of Lakota people.

An effort in New York to revive the language includes a Lakota Language Weekend, Saturday and Sunday at the nonprofit American Indian Community House, 39 Eldridge St. in Manhattan. The course is described by the Lakota Language Consortium as a “deep dive” into the Lakota language, as taught by experienced instructors.

There is some urgency to the work.

Many living speakers, Alex FireThunder, the deputy director of the Lakota Language Consortium, told Gothamist, are now in their 80s.

“Especially with the pandemic, we lost a lot of elders,” said FireThunder, who was raised upstate and now teaches the language in South Dakota. “The language has been in rapid decline because of colonialism, and so the work we’re doing in itself is a form of social justice.”

According to the Language Conservancy, 2,900 of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken across the world are now endangered. In 2019, the United Nations declared 2022-2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

“Many languages are today in danger of falling into disuse,” reads a 2021 report by UNESCO. “People’s ability and freedom to use their chosen language is essential for human dignity, peaceful co-existence, reciprocal action, and for the general wellbeing and sustainable development of society at large.”

Wil Meya, the CEO of the Language Consortium, estimated several dozen Lakota speakers live in New York City, making it one of over 600 languages in the five boroughs.

Efforts to revive languages like Lakota, said Meya, increasingly involved digital technology. For instance, his organization re-released an app that with more than 40,000 Lakota words serves as “the largest Native American dictionary in the world.”

“It’s instrumental in the language revitalization movement. Young people are using it all the time,” said Meya. “They’re saying it’s like having grandma or grandpa in their pocket.”

[/fusion_text][fusion_separator style_type=”single solid” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” flex_grow=”0″ top_margin=”10px” bottom_margin=”10px” width=”” alignment=”left” border_size=”3px” sep_color=”#8b1b1f” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” icon=”” icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” /][fusion_button link=”https://lakhota.org/news/” title=”” target=”_self” link_attributes=”” alignment_medium=”” alignment_small=”” alignment=”” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” color=”custom” button_gradient_top_color=”rgba(139,27,31,0)” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” button_gradient_bottom_color=”rgba(139,27,31,0)” button_gradient_top_color_hover=”rgba(51,51,51,0)” button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”rgba(51,51,51,0)” gradient_start_position=”” gradient_end_position=”” gradient_type=”” radial_direction=”” linear_angle=”180″ accent_color=”#000000″ accent_hover_color=”#000000″ type=”flat” bevel_color=”” bevel_color_hover=”” border_top=”” border_right=”” border_bottom=”” border_left=”” border_radius_top_left=”” border_radius_top_right=”” border_radius_bottom_right=”” border_radius_bottom_left=”” border_color=”” border_hover_color=”” size=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”0″ padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”0″ fusion_font_family_button_font=”Inter” fusion_font_variant_button_font=”400″ font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” stretch=”no” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]<< Back to News[/fusion_button][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_global id=”11370″][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Posted on July 26, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

Sitting Bull Film to be Shown in North Dakota – Bismarck Tribune

Sitting Bull Film to be Shown in North Dakota

[/fusion_title][fusion_separator style_type=”single solid” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” flex_grow=”0″ top_margin=”10px” bottom_margin=”10px” width=”200px” alignment=”left” border_size=”3px” sep_color=”#8b1b1f” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” icon=”” icon_size=”” icon_color=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” /][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”12″ line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

Cheryl McCormack | Bismarck Tribune | July 26, 2018

[/fusion_text][fusion_imageframe image_id=”11722|full” aspect_ratio=”” custom_aspect_ratio=”100″ aspect_ratio_position=”” skip_lazy_load=”” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” lightbox_image_id=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” max_width=”” sticky_max_width=”” align_medium=”none” align_small=”none” align=”none” mask=”” custom_mask=”” mask_size=”” mask_custom_size=”” mask_position=”” mask_custom_position=”” mask_repeat=”” style_type=”” blur=”” stylecolor=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” hover_type=”none” margin_top_medium=”” margin_right_medium=”” margin_bottom_medium=”” margin_left_medium=”” margin_top_small=”” margin_right_small=”” margin_bottom_small=”” margin_left_small=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” z_index=”” caption_style=”off” caption_align_medium=”none” caption_align_small=”none” caption_align=”none” caption_title=”” caption_text=”” caption_title_tag=”2″ fusion_font_family_caption_title_font=”” fusion_font_variant_caption_title_font=”” caption_title_size=”” caption_title_line_height=”” caption_title_letter_spacing=”” caption_title_transform=”” caption_title_color=”” caption_background_color=”” fusion_font_family_caption_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_caption_text_font=”” caption_text_size=”” caption_text_line_height=”” caption_text_letter_spacing=”” caption_text_transform=”” caption_text_color=”” caption_border_color=”” caption_overlay_color=”” caption_margin_top=”” caption_margin_right=”” caption_margin_bottom=”” caption_margin_left=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″]https://lakhota.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/180726-sittingbullfilm.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”12″ line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]Starring Jessica Chastain, right, as Catherine Weldon and Michael Greyeyes, left, as Sitting Bull, “Woman Walks Ahead” depicts Weldon’s journey to the Dakotas in the late 1800s to paint a portrait of the Indian chief and offer support to his people. Submitted photo[/fusion_text][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hue=”” saturation=”” lightness=”” alpha=”” content_alignment_medium=”” content_alignment_small=”” content_alignment=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” sticky_display=”normal,sticky” class=”” id=”” margin_top=”” margin_right=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_left=”” fusion_font_family_text_font=”” fusion_font_variant_text_font=”” font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” text_transform=”” text_color=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

BISMARCK-In 1889, an artist and activist living in New York journeyed to what is now the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, stretching across the Dakotas, where she befriended Sitting Bull and created four paintings of the Indian chief – one of which hangs in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum’s Inspiration Gallery.

Caroline “Catherine” Weldon’s journey was recently made into a motion picture, “Woman Walks Ahead,” which will premiere Friday, July 27, at the Grand Theatres, Bismarck. Audiences will have one week to take in the special showing.

The film was released about a month ago, but it was not widely promoted in theaters, according to Grand Theatres owner Jerry Brekke, who first watched the film on DirecTV pay-per-view.

“I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is such a wonderful film. Why is this not in the theater?'” he said. “It’s beautifully shot and acted, and is totally awe inspiring.”

Film distributor A24 granted Brekke special permission to show the western, which was filmed in New Mexico with Jessica Chastain starring in the lead role. Michael Greyeyes plays the part of Sitting Bull.

Prior to production, filmmaker Susanna White visited Lakota lands, including Standing Rock, but opted for locations near Santa Fe, N.M. Filming began a week before protests erupted at Standing Rock over the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to Film Journal International.

“The movie really does depict the scenery that we have here,” said Brekke. “It looks like it could’ve been filmed here.”

As a member of the National Indian Defense Association, Weldon advocated for Native American rights. She headed west to offer support to Sitting Bull and his people in response to the Dawes Act of 1887, which broke up indigenous land into individual allotments.

Once she arrived in Standing Rock, Weldon acted as Sitting Bull’s secretary for several months. She also offered financial support to the chief and his family, drawing on a small inheritance from her mother.

Weldon painted four portraits of Sitting Bull, of which two are known to have survived. One is held by the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the other is on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, Ark.

When Matthew F. Steele donated the portrait to the SHSND in 1953, a story accompanied it.

After creating the image, Weldon presented it to Sitting Bull, who hung the gift on the wall of one of his cabins. In the exchange of gunﬁre that resulted in Sitting Bull’s death in 1890, seven of his followers and six American Indian police died.

A policeman whose brother was killed tore the painting from the cabin wall and struck it with his riﬂe, causing the rip still visible today on the portrait, which hangs in the “our lives, our communities” section of the North Dakota Heritage Center’s Inspiration Gallery.

Steele, who was a lieutenant with the U.S. Army forces that arrived after the ﬁght, rescued the painting and purchased it from Sitting Bull’s widow. He went on to become a Fargo businessman.

“Woman Walks Ahead” is based on true events, which means it sometimes sacrifices accuracy for drama. For instance, the primary reason Weldon travels to Standing Rock in the movie is to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull. She also travels alone when, in reality, she made the journey with her young son, Christie.

Brekke says the film reminds him of the well-known western, “Dances with Wolves,” which was shot primarily in South Dakota.

“I just hope people see it. It’s really a great film,” he said. “It’s a rare thing that it wasn’t released, theatrically, on a wide basis. Only a few theaters have even shown it.”

Posted on July 25, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

Lakota father and daughter on working to revitalize their language – Prairie Public Broadcasting

Lakota father and daughter on working to revitalize their language

Prairie Public Broadcasting | July 25, 2018

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Those who work to revitalize Native American languages often find it challenging to reach the hearts of young people. But for one Lakota father and daughter, language has always been at the center of their lives, their bond and their purpose.

Manny and Claudia Iron Hawk recently visited the StoryCorps MobileBooth in Bismarck to discuss family history and the Lakota language as a healing force.

Posted on July 10, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

Lakota storyteller on lessons learned from a good friend and mentor – Prairie Public Broadcasting

Lakota storyteller on lessons learned from a good friend and mentor

Prairie Public Broadcasting | July 10, 2018

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Kevin Locke tells StoryCorps Facilitator, Madison Mullen, about a promise and gift made by his friend and benefactor, Arlo Good Bear, shortly before his death. He describes Good Bear’s lessons and gift of the hoop dance, which Locke has since shared with people all over the world.

Posted on July 1, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

‘Woman Walks Ahead’ Lead Sees A Sea Change For Indigenous People On Film – NPR

‘Woman Walks Ahead’ Lead Sees A Sea Change For Indigenous People On Film

Lulu Garcia-Navarro | NPR | July 1, 2018

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In Woman Walks Ahead, an artist and activist from New York City (Jessica Chastain) travels to North Dakota to make a portrait of Sitting Bull (Michael Greyeyes).

In Woman Walks Ahead, a New York City activist and artist named Catherine Weldon (played by Jessica Chastain) travels across the United States to paint the great Native American chief Sitting Bull. The role of Sitting Bull is portrayed with humor and complexity by Michael Greyeyes, who is Plains Cree and hails from Muskeg Lakes First Nation in Canada.

Based on real-life events, the movie finds Sitting Bull just after he was released from penitentiary for his involvement at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. “So this is really a portrait of a man near the end of his life — disillusioned, really, by the dispossession and violence that his community had faced,” Greyeyes says.

Greyeyes has had plenty of meaningful roles in an acting career that is nearing three decades. But in an interview, he explained why he considered this a “role of a lifetime.”

Interview Highlights

On what drew Greyeyes to the script

It was almost, really, from the first page that Steven Knight’s writing grabbed me. And of course, the first time Sitting Bull actually appears on the page immediately … where he meets Katherine and Katherine’s sort of speaking this elevated sort of language … and immediately Sitting Bull just shoots back really, with this comfortable, easy, vernacular tone. And we realized right away at how sophisticated he is, and the audience laughs. Every screening I’ve been in the audience laughs heartily. And from that moment I realized we were looking at a paradigm shift in terms of how Hollywood is treating native characters.

Very often in films and scripts that, you know, deal with our community or have native content, we’re often placed as foils against which some larger questions, some so-called more important question is examined. But in this film we see a Sitting Bull that is three-dimensional. We see his irony, his regret … his brokenness. And in that way it’s actually quite startling. It’s quite politically startling to see a native character treated with that with that scope — scope usually reserved for other ethnicities. And of course that drew me to the project immediately.

On the film’s role in telling the history of the American West

I think it’s a powerful corrective, to be quite honest. When I speak to people about the role and about what happens – and, of course, where the assassination of Sitting Bull lies in terms of the political landscape, the historical landscape of that time — I’m quite stunned, often, when I realize people don’t know that history. So when I encounter people that don’t know these kinds of monumental historical events, you know, whether it’s Indian removal or Wounded Knee, I’m often stunned. And so I know that with this film and its detailed examination of the Lakota struggle for sovereignty, for their lives even, I knew that this was timely. And with Susanna White, our director’s treatment, the humanism of her work, of Steven [Knight]’s work, creates a kind of empathy that I find is desperately lacking in our discourse.

On playing such an important historical figure

Sitting Bull is a hero. He’s a hero to indigenous people around the world. And for me to approach that role I too am an outsider. I’m indigenous but I’m — I come from a different community, a different culture. And so when I sought to approach this, I looked for support. I had language consultants and cultural advisers from Standing Rock and from the Lakota community who had worked in Hollywood, and we had numerous people behind the scenes, behind the camera. And it’s with that support, it’s with that literal love, that I felt confident I could approach this and portray him as I think we understand him. We as indigenous people understand our leaders to be that they’re — that they’re human, they’re complex, they’re sophisticated. They were grappling with huge issues at the time when — you know, we learn about them later, you know Dawes Allotment act, the violence in the West. So for me it was, and is, a role of a lifetime.

On choosing roles to perform, and the responsibility therein

Interestingly, actors of color, I think, bear a particular, an added responsibility, because dominant culture often see us as exemplars, or as sort of icons for a larger culture — not something we always assume of, you know, a Caucasian actor … and so I kind of carry this with me. I’ve always been adamant about trying to expand or agitate or subvert in some way our collective notion of Indian-ness. And so for example, when I spoke English I always fought that my characters would have a really profound grasp of the language. You know, English is relatively easy, you know, compared to indigenous languages. So I said, “Why wouldn’t he learn English well?” And you know, producers or directors would often wonder about that. But with Susanna [White] and these producers, that wasn’t an argument I had to make. They were allies from the beginning.

On the push for indigenous (and other minority) actors to portray roles that aren’t directly related to their heritage

Greyeyes: I’ve been fortunate in my career. I’ve always been incredibly proud to represent my community, whether it’s as a Cree man or as an indigenous person here. So I’ve played Comanche characters, Lakota characters, you know, other cultures. And even though I’ve played these different roles, they were always a period role. But then more recently I started to get cast as police officers or lawyers and, you know, even a serial killer. But they were always native doctors, native lawyers, until just recently actually. It was only about two weeks ago that I was finally cast, after 27 years in the business, as a character whose ethnicity was not determined. They just liked me as a performer. And so that to me was actually a watershed moment.

Garcia-Navarro: Do you think it signifies something broader?

Greyeyes: I do. I do. I think there’s a sea change. I’ve seen it for maybe the past 4-5 years, actually. I’ve started to see a dimensionality finally appear in the materials I was being sent, the scripts I was reading, and I started to see it in other places — in the treatment of our cultures, of our characters. For example, just recently I watched a fabulous episode on Westworld, and there was an episode that was really focused on the indigenous “hosts” in the show, and it was beautifully done — truly sophisticated, and the performances were nuanced. So it’s there. It’s with films like Woman Walks Ahead. It’s of course in the work of indigenous filmmakers and indigenous writers — it’s always been present. But I think we’re on the eve of something. It gives me great hope, as I continue to work in an industry that I love, that change is on hand.

Posted on June 27, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

The Language Conservancy Works to Revive Lakota Language – Prairie Public Broadcasting

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The Language Conservancy Works to Revive Lakota Language

Prairie Public Broadcasting | June 27, 2018

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The Language Conservancy (TLC) works to revive endangered languages. Alex Fire Thunder is an instructor for the Lakota Summer Institute at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck.

Posted on June 19, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

One Lakota Instructor is Working to Revive the Language – KX News

One Lakota Instructor is Working to Revive the Language

Renee Cooper | KX News | June 19, 2018

Only about 1,500 people nationwide speak Lakota.

This is down 5,000 from ten years ago and 10,000 from 20 years ago.

But one Lakota Language Consortium instructor is working to revitalize the language.

The instructor, Alex FireThunder grew up hearing Lakota on a daily basis.

He explains, “My mom is Lakota, she is a native speaker. She learned Lakota first, and only spoke Lakota in the home until she went to kindergarten.”

Now he spends his time teaching the language and working for it’s revitalization.

He says, “If you want to speak Spanish, you can go to Spain and you can hear Spanish be spoken when you go to the store. And when you go to a restaurant, you have to order in Spanish. You’re expected to speak the language of the people.”

He says he hopes one day the same will be true for Lakota Country.

This is the first year the Lakota Summer Institute has come here to UTTC after 11 years in Standing Rock, and Bismarck is very much a part of Lakota Country.”

So how do you normalize a language that is currently in decline?

FireThunder says, “You need to read, you need to write, you need to speak and you need to hear it. I’m on social media and I just bombard all of my friends with the language. So when I’m on Snapchat, I’ll be talking in Lakota on my snapchat videos.”

It won’t be easy though.

Executive Director for the Lakota Language Consortium Wil Meya says, “In order to maintain even current levels, we need to be creating about 200-300 new speakers a year.”

But the 80 students enrolled at UTTC this summer keeps him optimistic.

Meya adds, “It’s not enough yet to offset the decline of the speakers but we estimate in the next couple years, we’ll be able to generate in the order of hundreds of new speakers a year.”

Meya says more people are interested in learning the language than ever before.

And FireThunder is assured: Lakota is a living language that will not be left in the past.

Storycorps, one of the largest oral history programs in the world, has partnered with the Lakota Language Consortium.

They will be in Bismarck starting next week, to record stories from the Lakota community.

Posted on March 14, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

Native American Nonprofit Aims to Boost Community Health by Teaching Lakota Language – NYN Media

Native American Nonprofit Aims to Boost Community Health by Teaching Lakota Language

Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech | NYN Media | March 14, 2018

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ILLUSTRATION BY ZACH WILLIAMS/ NYN MEDIA

In a small room in the basement of New York University, Aru Apaza sits with a group of a dozen others and gushes about American Indian Community House – a nonprofit that has become a home away from home for her.

She is speaking to a group made up of staff and volunteers from AICH, the Language Conservancy and New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. They have met to kick off New York City’s first Lakota Language Weekend – two days dedicated to improving community health and overall well-being through the speaking and learning of Lakota.

“It is good medicine to hear people hearing the language,” said Apaza.

It’s all part of an ongoing work at the lower Manhattan-based nonprofit, which was founded in 1969 by Native American volunteers to support their community and create intercultural understanding at a time when indigenous communities across the U.S were reasserting their identity.

Programs include “well-briety circles” for those looking to recover from addictions, mental health services and assistance with finding affordable health care providers. The organization, led by Ben Geboe, has become one of the oldest urban Native American health programs in the United States. By hosting a Lakota Language Weekend, AICH is adding another tool to its interventions for improving well-being.

A 2016 s tudy suggests that efforts to keep a language alive translate into health-related benefits for Native Americans. Language use generates a strong sense of connectedness to the community and cultural history. And an increased interest in the culture goes hand in hand with an increased desire to improve community health.

“I needed it for my own identity as a Lakota person,” said Alex Firethunder, an instructor during the Lakota Language Weekend. “Spiritually, emotionally, I felt like I wasn’t meeting my full potential as a Lakota person.”

Firethunder grew up in Upstate New York but left home to study on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. During his childhood he spent every summer in South Dakota and dreamed of living on the reservation to be with his people and learn Lakota. His mother is a Lakota speaker but chose not to teach it to her children. Now Firethunder is the Lakota language and cultural coordinator at the Lakota Waldorf School on that reservation.

The Endangered Language Project categorizes the Lakota language as an extremely endangered one. Since the 1700s, many speakers of Native American languages were forced or pressured by white settlers to only speak English, which has played a role in the decreasing numbers. As of 2016 there were about 2,000 native Lakota speakers left with the majority being over the age of 65. To help address this, there have been six Lakota Language Weekends in various cities since it began in 2016. AICH reached out to the Language Conservancy’s director of communications to explore hosting the event in New York City for the first time.

The health status of Native Americans is such that every possible beneficial intervention is appreciated, research shows. According to the Indian Health Service, Native Americans suffer some of the poorest health outcomes of any other racial group in the United States. Native Americans and Alaska Natives have a life expectancy of 73 years, four years less than the national average.

According to the National Congress of American Indians, the suicide rate among Native Americans is 62 percent higher than in the non-Native American population. Suicide is also the second leading cause of death for Native youth between the ages of 18-24.

“I mean everybody knows someone that has done it. It has almost become normalized,” said Renelle White Buffalo, another Lakota language instructor who traveled from South Dakota to participate in the weekend.

Firethunder credits learning Lakota as a step towards creating better outcomes for himself and his family. He wanted the ability to pass on his ancestral language to his own children and he has already seen first hand the physical and mental health benefits to his community:

“Most of those people are sober, most are further in their education, they worry about their well being and they are pushing to be better,” said Firethunder.

Posted on January 25, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

The Fight Against Language Loss: Lakota Language Weekend in Sioux Falls – SDPB Radio

The Fight Against Language Loss: Lakota Language Weekend in Sioux Falls

Jackie Hendry | SDPB Radio | January 25, 2018

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Before colonization, the indigenous peoples of North America spoke nearly 500 different languages. Today, there are only 20 languages with enough speakers for a revitalization effort.

Lakota is one of them.

The Lakota Language Consortium hosted a Lakota Language Weekend in South Dakota’s largest city last weekend.

Allen Wilson remembers hearing his grandma chat enthusiastically with friends in Lakota when he was growing up. He grew up on the Rosebud Reservation, and he also remembers one of the first moments he understood Lakota. It was a windy day at home with his mother.

“It’s a two-story house, and one of the windows was open. And the wind closed one of the doors and my mom said, ‘Oooh, gigi.’ And just from the context I knew it was like, ‘Ooh, there’s a ghost there!’ And I’ll always remember that.”

Wilson took some Lakota language classes back in college, but was discouraged by the difficulty. But when he moved back home after living in New Mexico, he had a renewed desire to learn. He finished a degree in Lakota history and culture, and became a teacher. It was then he realized…

“… the Lakota language was really in danger of disappearing. I think they said out of 176 thousand enrolled members on reservations in South Dakota, there’s a little over 2 thousand fluent speakers left. Which is a really, really small number.”

Wilson’s now involved with the Lakota Language Consortium. It’s a non-profit created in 2004 that supplies Lakota dictionaries, textbooks, and other materials to schools, tribes, and individual learners across the country.

Wil Meya is the executive director. He explains that while Lakota has more speakers than some other Native languages, there is still cause for concern.

“We’re at the point where we’ve lost over 90% of the speaker population. And we’re just not able to replace them fast enough. Currently we’d need to be producing 100-200 speakers a year just to maintain the levels we have.

The Lakota Language consortium’s programs produce 20 to 30 speakers a year. Meya says that’s not enough.

“That’s why we’re in places like Sioux Falls and Rapid City trying to get people engaged in really what we call a movement to take back and get the language spoken again.”

And the movement is open to anyone. At the recent Lakota Language Weekend instructors held two days of intensive language lessons at Southeast Tech in Sioux Falls. Students young and old, Native and non-Native, attended because they want to learn the language.

Stella Lawrence is a massage student from Mitchell and heard about the class from a friend. Lawrence has relatives who speak Lakota. She and her mom have talked about learning it together.

“But she’s in a different state and so I told her about this opportunity. So she said, ‘Take your sister and get to that class!’ And I was like, alright, I’m gonna do it.”

Lawrence’s sister, Cheyene, is a high school junior in Chamberlain. She remembers hearing her grandparents speak Lakota and wondering about the language.

“At first, before coming to this class, I was kinda, ‘Mmm, I’ll try it.’ In this class though the tutors and instructors inspired me…So, it’s kinda like, when he’s talking about it, I remembered it and thought it’s gonna take some work but I think it’ll be worth it.”

The classes at the Lakota Language Weekend focused on conversational instruction. Allen Wilson and other teachers use examples so students can learn in context—like that moment when he was 8 years old and realized he knew what his mother was saying. Wilson and Ben Black Bear—another instructor from the Rosebud Reservation—demonstrate identifying different age groups for men and women.

Wilson calls another instructor a young boy—someone who clearly isn’t—and in context some of the students catch the joke. But there are plenty of blank stares. Some get hung up on questions about verb tense and exact translation, but are encouraged to pick up clues from careful listening, practice, and context–the way everyone learns their first language as a child.

It’s an intense method, but Ben Black Bear says it’s the best. Lakota was his first language, and he’s been teaching it for nearly 50 years.

“In other words, the bottom line is learning the language is more important than learning the rules and the grammar and things like that. The sound system and stuff like that. All that comes in the process of learning the language. As long as that’s emphasized with the teachers, the language will grow and spread.”

Black Bear uses other methods too, like translating well known songs to Lakota to teach a handful of words and phrases at once.

Before colonization, Lakota wasn’t a written language. But Wilson says to survive, it needs to be—so young people can write or text in Lakota. Black Bear says the changing nature of the language is a challenge, but it’s worthwhile so young people and students can learn.

“I think this interest in reviving the language and teaching it to young people, it’s gonna help young people to expand their knowledge, expand their minds and understand things that they otherwise wouldn’t if they only spoke one of the languages…”

Wilson is scared by the dwindling number of Lakota speakers, but encourages learners to build a new community.

“But really it’s that I hope that I inspire someone to self study, to be disciplined, to be a teacher of Lakota, to really put that effort forth, to help in the fight against language loss. I need allies for sure! Again it can seem like a daunting task. But these are our first steps in revitalizing Lakota. But I’ve a feeling it’s only going to get bigger from here, and better, and stronger! ”

The final lesson of the first day of this Lakota Language Weekend: there’s no phrase for goodbye in Lakota. Instead there’s more of a farewell.

To?ks?a akhe? wa?c?hi?ya?ki? kte.

In Lakota: I will see you again.

Posted on January 20, 2018June 28, 2023 by TLC Publishing

Lakota Language Weekend Comes to Sioux Falls – KSFY

An effort to revive the Lakota language comes to Manhattan this weekend

KSFY | January 20, 2018

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A national organization is working to save the Lakota language.

This Saturday more than 50 people were at South East Technical institute in Sioux Falls to participate in the Lakota language weekend.

While instructors say they don’t expect people to learn the language in a weekend, they hope this workshop will spark their interest to continue learning.

“Out of respect for the land and the Lakota communities that first inhabited this area, it is very important to continue that language,” Lakota language teacher Alex Firethunder said.

He says as many Lakota speakers get older, it’s important for the next generation to learn the language.

He says many indigenous languages around the nation are endangered or extinct.