Tusweca Tiospaye, the Lakota-Dakota Language Summit’s organizers, added a special workshop to do any language warrior proud: an intense, 16-hour marathon of language study, in the class Lakota/Dakota Language for Beginners. The class was developed and planned by Sunshine Archambault Carlow and Nacole Walker of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Education Department. Sunshine is the Education Manager and Nacole is the Language Education Coordinator for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

This breakout session saw roughly twenty people commit to two days of learning of the basics of Lakota/Dakota, including pronunciation and how to use a Lakota/Dakota dictionary for self-study.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Education Department loaned the participants dictionaries for practice.

Sunshine Archambault Carlow and Nacole Walker did warrior duty, leading the class over two eight-hour days and modeling the best in second-language instruction.

Teachers from around Lakota Country, who weren’t able to take the full class, nevertheless sat in to audit parts of it as a refresher. Many told LLC booth staff that Nacole and Sunshine’s presentation gave them lots of ideas for their own work.

By all accounts this was a fantastic course, a highly valuable workshop that generated tons of positive feedback and buzz.  Kudos to the workshop staff and participants!

More in Part III!