News Excerpt (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

June 02, 2004
Upper Sioux tribe working to advance on economic ladder
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/gaming/2004/jun/02/516953244.html

Excerpt from news article on the Upper Sioux in Minnesota...

Like many other bands, the Upper Sioux worry about maintaining their
culture. Only 10 of their elders remain who are fluent in the language
of the Upper Sioux, the youngest in her 70s.

One of them, 74-year-old Carolynn Cavender Schommer, holds weekly
language classes that attract a handful of children at the community
center. Surrounded by drawings of bison, owl, snake and turtle, with
their Dakota names, Schommer described how some Dakota words cannot be
translated into English.

"You might know the culture, but if you don't know the language, how do
you understand your culture?" she said.