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Language summit draws more than 450 people
Many leading Native educators who are working in the field of Lakota, Dakota and Nakota language revitalization and maintenance were keynote speakers and breakout session presenters. A couple of other meetings were being concurrently held in the Rapid City area including a meeting of the Oglala Sioux tribal education department and a meeting for tribal officials, chairmen and Canadian chiefs. OST used the opportunity to discuss using Lakota language as one of the major criteria in order to meet adequate yearly progress indicator for eight schools in the area in lieu of attendance. These discussions were more of an educational sessions throughout the conference.
"The conference was to get people excited about what they do in language revitalization and enable them to network, while creating and sustaining unity. Another conference is being planned around the same time. We are not trying to say there is one way or that this is the only way. There are different dialects and teaching methods" said Carlow as he summarized his philosophy for the summit. The summit was initiated by Chief Arvol Horse Looking, while Carlow offered the welcome address and Leonard Little Finger illustrated the work he has done to create an immersion school in Oglala. Tuesday's schedule also saw some exciting presentations by Earl Bull Head on using stories, history and songs to teach Lakota and Robert Two Crow on exploring indigenous language research. The Wednesday schedule saw Albert White Hat of the Lakota Studies Department at Sinte Gleska University on the subculture of language, while Dr. Archie Beauvais, Sandra Black Bear and Almona Kills In Water of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe's Lakota Language Presentation conducted back to back breakout sessions on their work in language preservation in the communities for the last year.
The McKay family from Sioux Valley, Manitoba, Canada also gave an excellent presentation on their collective efforts to create a family immersion school on their property entitled the Canku Kaga Dakota School. They used the Dakota language for everything from history, stories, music and all of the traditional required basic courses in reading, math, etc using Dakota to essentially home school the 13 children who enrolled in the first class. Their rationale for creating the school was because they were fed up with the bullying at their children's public school and simply wanted their children to be immersed in a way of life that was more reflective of Dakota values and by providing a safe environment that was more conductive to traditional learning. There were a couple of sessions in which Dakota, Lakota, Nakota leaders assembled to discuss a variety of language related issues, while daily workshop presenters also spent time discussing some of the issues that arose for consideration during their sessions. Chris Eagle Hawk served as the eyapaha for a number of the keynote addresses along with breakfast and dinners gatherings. On the last day, he introduced Jason Drapeaux, Jr., and Brittany Poor Bear of Martin who sang a traditional Lakota. They received praise from Oswald McKay of the Canku Kaga Dakota School afterward. He said they had lifted his heart with their song. Also on the last day, Rosalie Little Thunder delivered a keynote address on her changing philosophy about the transmission of Lakota. She said she had her beginnings in the teaching of Lakota by doing what everyone else was doing in teaching the language, but that was not good enough. She spoke of disciplining one's self, making relatives and protocol in the Lakota language. She recounted a story where she met a Lakota elder at Bear Butte and she asked him about the spiritual way as contained in the language. He told her that she would find it in the language She said, "I tell you the language is packed with teachings and lessons…, we are dealing with the language, it is wakan. We have to treat the language that way. It belongs in the home and we are not going to rescue it until it is there." She spoke of colonization and how it is not about blood quantum, it's about behavior and responsibility. She uses the language for cultural mapping , to where a person is and where they want to be with discipline. "There is healing in the language," she said. The summit concluded with a youth panel after breakfast which included Lakota youth from middle school on up to college. They all spoke of how important they thought the Lakota language is and their desire to learn it and teach it.
Finally, Carlow has prepared a poster for next year's language summit, while hoping to schedule a whole new set of presenters. He has also posted pictures and information on this year's conference on the Tusweca Tiospaye website.
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