Everyone’s favorite Lakota-speaking Bear Family,  Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe, will be back on public television starting Saturday, March 7th — this time bringing the Lakota language to the Los Angeles area.

LLC is proud to announce that Southern California stations KVCR and FNX will broadcast the show every Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 am (PST) and 10:30 am (EST). Once again, the series begins airing on Saturday, March 7th.

KVCR is a PBS-affiliate station in San Bernardino, California. Its sister station is the cable channel FNX (First Nations Experience), a project of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in partnership with KVCR. FNX presents Native American stories and content across all media platforms.

Twenty episodes of the Berenstain Bears cartoons were dubbed into Lakota in 2011 and first broadcast on Prairie Public Television in September of that year. Since 2011, the Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe series has been available free online, and comes with the option to download vocabulary lists and full scripts for each episode.

Produced and distributed with the permission of Berenstain Enterprises, Inc., Nelvana Limited and PBS (Public Broadcasting System), this 20-episode Lakota language edition of the Berenstain Bears is the first Lakota-language cartoon ever created.

Voices of the characters are all from the Lakota-speaking Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud communities of North and South Dakota, and reflect all local dialects of the language.

Equally as important, the original Berenstain Bears series lines up very well to Lakota values, which was very important in the making of this series. Lakota values such as bravery, respect, generosity, and fortitude all play significant roles throughout the 20-episode series. Lots of different family interactions reflecting day-to-day life, as well as many idiomatic expressions help keep the langauge use real and relevant in every episode.