4/4/13

Spanish immersion: neither Ponca nor Yanktonai? ICWA: "no one's hands are clean"




Indian Country wants Kristi Noem to enter South Dakota's GOP Senate primary:
It doesn't get any more slam-dunk than such disturbingly vibrant reveries when it comes to corroborating War on Women accusations. Intellectual independents focused on fiscal responsibility and a common-sense solution to the gridlock in Washington will only be courting disappointment if they back Rounds.--Cole R. DeLaune, Indian Country Today
WTF is wrong with GOP governors?

Josh Verges of the Argus Leader seems incredulous that a person supporting a Spanish immersion school in Sioux Falls would run for school board. Intersecting with that story is the dedication of yet another state park in occupied Lincoln County intended to appease local tribes.

From a piece by Ruth Moon in the Rapid City Journal:
Lakota is part of the "Dakota" language group, the third most commonly spoken Native American language in the country, but new Census estimates indicate fewer than 19,000 people still speak it. More than 10,000 of the nation's Dakota speakers live in South Dakota. Navajo is the most commonly spoken Native American language with more than 150,000 speakers. Nearly 20,000 people speak Yupik, the language of central Alaskan indigenous people. The "Dakota" language group comprises 18 language variations.
The US Census Bureau cites the languages:
Assiniboin, Brule, Brule Sioux, Da'catah/Dakota/Dakota Sioux, Hunkpapa/Hunkpapa Sioux, Lakota/Lakotah/Lakota Sioux, Nakota/Nakota Sioux, Oglala/Oglala Sioux, Santee, Teton, Yankton.


South Dakota's Republican governors have been breaking the law: Attorneys General Larry Long (now judge) and Marty Jackley have been covering it up.
Federal law says Native American children belong in Native American foster homes, except in the most extreme circumstances. Despite that law, the number of children in South Dakota who are pulled out of their culture and kept in white homes hasn’t changed much since the law was passed almost 35 years ago. If 80 percent to 90 percent of Native children are being placed in white homes, clearly the spirit of the law isn’t being followed. Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board.
Photo: Jay Pickthorn.

3 comments:

Kal Lis said...

Great point about language Larry. My wife teaches Spanish.

I can spit out a few words of German when I need to. It's one of the things that lets me connect with my elders who had German as a first language.

Quite frankly, we should have a few more immersion schools

Taking away language is taking away culture and a sense of self.

We could all spend more time on second and third languages instead of monitering these damned standardized tests like I am right now.

larry kurtz said...

My mother taught Spanish in Lake Benton, my older sister taught in Elkton for eons and tutored math in Spanish.

We are all immigrants.

larry kurtz said...

Update at Sioux City Journal.