During Week 2 of LSI, the schedule was stretched to “start early, end late,” in order to accommodate the special event that fell in our laps: a visit by the President of the United States and First Lady to the Summer Powwow at Cannon Ball, ND, on the Standing Rock reservation, less than an hour north of Fort Yates and Sitting Bull College.

The visit, which happened Friday, June 13, drew Standing Rock tribe members away from the Sitting Bull College campus for the entire day.  We’ll have a report on the day soon – as there was a significant event for Native languages on Saturday, June 14, in the backwash of that visit.

The second week of LSI saw a return to a strong focus on the Lakota language, after the friendly welcome given to the MHA Nation and Crow Nation Summer Institutes getting their start.

Dr. Lanny Real Bird of the Crow nation stayed on, and taught his course on Plains Sign Language.

Junior Garcia stayed on, too, after leading classes last week on Teaching Methods for the Crow Level 1 textbooks.  In Week 2 he led Teaching Methods for Lakota Levels 1 and 2 textbooks.

Longtime LSI Instructor Kim Campbell presented on Teaching Methods for Lakota Levels 3 and 4 textbooks.

LLC Linguistic Director Jan Ullrich continued teaching Lakota Grammar and language Intensives.

Peter Hill and Anpao Duta Flying Earth also taught language Intensives.

The dynamic energy of LSI is something you can feel in the halls at SBC, says LLC Executive Director Wil Meya. “People’s brains are so full, there’s so much learning happening,” he said. “We turn the whole place upside down, the place is full of movement and voices. This year was especially electric with all the younger people joining in – LSI is building a vital group of language activists, and gathering new activists on board.”

And then this happened:

And this, on Saturday:

William Mendoza (Oglala – Sicangu Lakota), the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, and Ron Lessard (Mohawk – Abenaki), Strategic Advisor for Native American Affairs, were at Sitting Bull College on Saturday to join a roundtable of tribal leaders, students, educators, higher education officials and others to discuss successes and challenges in language preservation.

More on this, coming soon.