[EDLING:930] College Uses Rap Music to Save a Language

[Francis M Hult]

College Uses Rap Music to Preserve a Language
By Matthew Leiste
UCW News

http://news.ucwe.com/content/view/523/2/

Agency Village, SD - The first rap song ever recorded in the Dakotah language was produced 
in a joint effort by the Sisseton Wahpeton College and the Association on American Indian 
Affairs. The rap song, titled "Wicozani Mitawa," or "My Life," was recorded at a studio on 
the Sisseton Wahpeton College campus in Sisseton, SD, on the
Lake Traverse Reservation.

College President, Dr. William Harjo Lone Fight, a nationally renowned figure in the field 
of Native language restoration, hailed the song for its creativity and importance. "For a 
language to flourish it has to be used. That is the bottom line. This son helps bring 
Dakota into the 21st century as a living language with relevance to our youth."
SWC and AAIA are encouraging everyone to make a copy of the CD so the Dakotah language can 
be heard by as many Dakota youth as possible. "The entire concept behind this project is 
to create a way to have an entire generation of young people actually hear Dakotah being 
used," Director of the Native Language Program for AAIA, Tammy Decoteau, said.
The Dakotah lyrics for the song were first written in English by Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota 
member Tristan Eastman. The lyrics were then translated into Dakotah and edited by Dakota 
elders Orsen Bernard, Edwina Bernard, Wayne Eastman, Olivia Eastman, V. June Renville, and 
Delbert Pumpkinseed. With the translation in hand, Tristan Eastman performed the song in 
Dakotah to music written by Tim Laughter.

The collaboration between elders and youth resulted in a Dakotah rap song that is the 
first of its kind, putting the words and feelings of today's youth into the Dakotah 
language to create an authentic voice. "Some of the Dakotah words had really deep meaning 
and when translating we were trying to interpret what that young person [Tristan Eastman] 
was saying and put a lot of positive thinking in there, but at the same time expressing 
what he felt," translator Orsen Bernard said.
The original plan for the Dakotah rap song was to create "simple rap songs for children 
because the children are listening to whatever it is their parents are listening to and we 
felt that they would respond well to rap-style songs," DeCoteau said. But during an 
informal conversation DeCoteau was having with Eastman, "He mentioned that he wrote rap 
songs.

One of our productions was a CD of popular children's songs, sung in the Dakotah language 
so the elders had already had experience in translating songs from English to Dakotah." 
The result is a Dakotah rap song that older youth can find a positive cultural identity 
in.

The Dakotah rap song is on the forefront of creatively keeping endangered languages alive 
and relevant to young speakers. For a language to survive it must be a powerful medium for 
new generations of speakers to express themselves in with the confidence that they will be 
heard. The Dakotah language, in its struggle for survival and relevancy with Dakota youth, 
is now being used in one of American culture's most dominant forms of expression, rap 
music.

Such creative steps act as an invitation for Dakota youth to engage with and learn their 
traditional language. "If we could reach the young people in one way or another with the 
words which have such deep meanings, hopefully down the road, they may look those words 
up," Bernard said.

There is good reason for Bernard to be hopeful that combining the traditional language of 
the Dakota people with mainstream culture will work. After 12 year old LaRelle Gill first 
heard the Dakotah rap song, she said, "This is really cool. I could learn how to speak 
Dakotah by listening to this song."
The partnership between the Sisseton Wahpeton College and the AAIA has created several 
Dakotah language revitalization projects that have taken advantage of modern media to 
reach Dakota youth, including books, PowerPoint presentations, DVDs, CDs, an animation 
piece that was nominated for Best Animation at the Native Voices Film Festival, and now a 
rap song.

AAIA and Sisseton Wahpeton College are encouraging free dissemination of the rap song to 
anyone who is interested. The CD with liner notes is also available through the SWC 
bookstore for $5, with 100 percent of the profits going back into future Dakotah language 
projects like the rap song. The point is not to make a profit, but to save a language, as 
Decoteau said, "The CDs are created with the message printed clearly on both the CD and 
the sleeve, to make copies and share them simply in order to allow for as many people as 
possible to hear the Dakotah language."