Tribes work to restore `critically endangered' Lakota language (fwd)

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Tribes work to restore `critically endangered' Lakota language
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/7906913.htm

Associated Press

OGLALA, S.D. - The Lakota language, once spoken exclusively in most
American Indian homes and communities on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation, is no longer learned at a rate that keeps up with the
death of fluent-speaking elders.

"Nationally, it's critically endangered," said Wayne H. Evans, a
professor in the school of education at the University of South Dakota.

"The Lakota language status is critical to the point of being lost,"
added Stephanie Charging Eagle, graduate department director at Oglala
Lakota College.

At Loneman School on the reservation, students speak, think and learn
almost entirely in English, a dramatic change from just a couple of
decades ago, according to officials.

"Twenty-six years ago, 90 percent of the student body were fluent
speakers," said Leonard Little Finger, cultural resource educator at
Loneman. "Today those statistics have flip- flopped."

One reason for the decline is the language is no longer valued, said
Deborah Bordeaux, principal at Loneman School. As an administrator, she
works to achieve federal and educational standards of a Bureau of
Indian Affairs school. But keeping and maintaining the Lakota language
isn't one of those standards, she said.

"We as a people need to validate that. We need to value the language to
save it," she said.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
estimates 6,000 members of South Dakota's American Indian tribes are
fluent speakers of Lakota.

But because English is the language of education, business and
government, interest in learning the Lakota language has dwindled, said
Little Finger.

At a recent Oglala Sioux Tribal Council meeting, council members debated
agenda items, talked about financial reforms and agreed to sell its
tribal farm and ranch - all while speaking entirely in English.

"Only about half of the council speaks Lakota," said Lyman Red Cloud
Sr., a council official who is bilingual.

Even though an Oglala Sioux Tribal Council resolution states that the
Lakota language is the official language of the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation, speaking Lakota at council meetings is the exception
rather than the rule.

"That's why we have difficulty with the council talking to the people in
their districts," said Red Cloud. The older population is more
comfortable speaking in their native language, and also have limited
understanding of English, he said.

Little Finger said his first language was Lakota, but education drew him
off the reservation and eventually into a career that took him
throughout the United States.

"If you can't speak English, you're out," Little Finger said. "That's
our struggle."

Yet the loss of native language includes a loss of cultural history, and
to lose the language is to lose understanding of a unique people, he
said.

The Lakota language encompasses not only culture but a spiritual belief
system, said Charging Eagle.

"Usually healers, spiritual leaders and specialized healers will acquire
their power through a dream or vision," she said.

Today, more of those healers are not speaking the language and it is not
being passed down from healer to healer, Charging Eagle said. "We're
losing our spiritual strength," she said.

While fluent conversations in Lakota still take place at social
gatherings, a revitalization of the language is needed in the areas of
education, governmental affairs and business, said Charging Eagle.

Evans said he was able to maintain fluency in Lakota even after his
family moved off the reservation when he completed eighth grade. But he
realizes that keeping up with Lakota has become increasingly difficult
for young people.

"There has to be a sustained environment; there has to be a need to use
the language," he said.

Computer games, books, movies, magazines, radio, music and TV saturate
the lives of Lakota youth in English, he said. "From the time you get
up and every time you turn around, you're bombarded by it," Evans said.

Both the Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Sioux reservations have started
projects aimed at keeping Lakota alive. But time is running out for
students to learn Lakota from native speakers, officials say.

If any the language classes have produced fluent speakers, Evans isn't
aware of them. "I don't see the results of that," he said.

Information from: The Rapid City Journal