Immersion course looks to keep Dakota language alive (fwd link)

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Immersion course looks to keep Dakota language alive Label Head:

Posted: Nov 21, 2011, 8:46 am
By Dan Olson
Minnesota Public Radio News
USA

[media link available]

Joe Bendickson comes from a Dakota Indian family, but he didn’t know
about his ancestors’ language until he was in high school.

“When I was little, my parents never told me we had a language,” he
said. “They didn’t tell me because my grandparents went to the Indian
boarding schools. And when they were there they weren’t treated very
well, and whenever they spoke the Dakota language they would be
punished. That’s why I didn’t know that we had a language.”

The experience of Bendickson’s grandparents is an all-too common one
in Minnesota, a state that has a Dakota name but few fluent voices. He
counts just five people in Minnesota who are native Dakota speakers.

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