Lakota Summer Institute

Registration is open for the in-person 2023 Lakota Summer Institute (LSI) in collaboration with Rural American Initiatives (RAI)! The 16th annual LSI will be held from June 5th-16th in Rapid City, South Dakota.

LSI will offer Beginner, Pre-Intermediate, and Teacher courses for Lakota Language learners. Each track of instruction will include communicative and grammar courses. LSI is open to all learners and teachers alike.

To register click below.

“The Dictionary I Read For Fun”

Lakota Language Consortium thanks Dr. John McWhorter for his kind words about the New Lakota Dictionary in the recent The New York Times editorial. “This marvelous dictionary may help keep the number of (Lakota) speakers from falling. It gathers over 41,000 words and illustrates them with more than 50,000 sentences, usage notes and collocations.” – John McWhorter of the New York Times

Lakota Language Consortium would like to gratefully acknowledge the many Native-Speaking Lakota people who dedicated considerable time and effort in the creation of the New Lakota Dictionary, 3rd Edition.

This publication is the culmination of 30 years of work with Lakota First language speakers within in many Lakota communities, and would not have been possible without the knowledge they shared. Special recognition should be given to Ben Black Bear Jr., Robert Two Crow, and Richard Two Dogs for contributing their invaluable knowledge. This work would not have been possible without the knowledge and work of all the individuals listed here.

LLC Recordings To Be Stored In Tribal Archives

Lakota Language Consortium Board of Directors and Staff have provided a variety of collections of past recordings with Sitting Bull College, Standing Rock Language And Culture Institute and the Oglala Lakota College Owoksape Tipi Archives.

These recordings have allowed linguists and Lakota elder consultants to identify words that contributed to the creation of many materials that we all enjoy today. These recordings include narratives from Lakota speakers from Pine Ridge and Standing Rock reservations.

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation recordings were collected between 2004 and 2019 from 26 fluent Lakota Elders. The 28 recordings were donated to honor the legacy of former board member, the late Johnson Holy Rock. This collection will be stored at the Oglala Lakota College Archive.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe recordings were collected between 2005 and 2019 with 8 wonderful and fluent Lakota Elders. The 12 recordings were donated to honor the legacy and language advocacy of Standing Rock elder and Board Member, the late Kevin Locke.

Each collection comes with a USB drive, meta-data, signed release forms, and a license to the materials. This allows these organizations the rights to authorize the reproduction and publication of these materials for educational purposes.

Our hope is for these Tribal entities to share these collections as they see fit.

Language Revitalization Efforts in NYC & DC

In late February Wil was joined by Renell White Buffalo, acclaimed Lakota artist and language learner, in the presentation of the New Lakota Dictionary to the New York Public Library in honor of International Decade of Indigenous Language. The library is a beacon of hope for the support of Indigenous languages and literacy worldwide.

The following week a LLC delegation attended NIEA Hill Week. 2023 marks 50 years since the Indian Education Act first became law. Hill Week is an important opportunity to engage with Congressional partners and take stock of Native Education efforts. This year’s symposium included a panel on Native Language Revitalization and released this 10 Year National Plan on Native Language Revitalization.

Updates To The Online Store

Our Customer Support Team has been working hard to refresh our online store and the first big update is complete.

We’ve updated the navigation and many of the settings to make it easier than ever to use the store. A big change has been to update shipping costs to match the true cost of shipping vs the fixed material rate.

Now when you check out our online store will calculate the true cost of shipping your materials out!