12/13/13

Rapid City daycare teaching Lakota

Rapid City is often cited as the most racist city in the US by American Indians; yet, now a daycare center is teaching indigenous language:
Peter Hill, founder of the program, says the reason he wanted to develop the daycare was a way to immerse children in the Lakota Language before they only learn English. "The situation that we have here is called a 'language island,' said Hill. "So we're trying to have within the hours of the program, within the physical building only Lakota, no English." [Alexandra Montgomery, KOTA teevee]
Lawyers trained in indigenous languages have access to stories that could reverse the loss of treaty lands.

Ruth Moon brought a story of hopefulness 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.
Kayla Gahagan:
For public schools, simply meeting No Child Left Behind requirements absorbs resources, and with a majority of the day devoted to math and reading, there is little time for Lakota, said Mike Carlow, director of the Tusweca Tiospaye, an organization dedicated to revitalizing the language. But learning the Lakota language and mastering other subjects does not have to be mutually exclusive, said Nicky Belle, project coordinator for the Lakota language program at Red Cloud. "It's not learning Lakota language and culture to the detriment of everything else," he said. Success in a second language often translates into overall academic success, experts say, and educators don't have to separate the two. Red Cloud Indian School language teacher Philomine Lakota said the desire to learn the language can't be tied directly to success in school anyway, or it won't be reason enough for students to learn it. "It goes beyond college and how much you earn," she said. "The greater world is going to hold you to who you are." Darrell Kipp, founder of the Piegan Institute on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwest Montana, is convinced there is only one way to save a language: immersion. The Blackfeet language stood on the verge of extinction in 1985. It prompted Kipp and several others to found the institute and start an immersion school, modeled after successful programs of the Aha Punanoe Leo in Hawaii, which have produced more than 1,000 fluent speakers in the past 25 years. The Blackfeet program is much more humble, Kipp said, but serves as a model for many of the tribes in the western half of the United States. At least a handful of tribal members visit every month to observe the program, he said.
Missoula's Buffalo Post recently reported that Darrell Kipp has walked on. Montana is going forward on native languages.

South Dakota high schools barely offer German, Norwegian, Danish, the languages of its own immigrant population. My mother and sister taught high school Spanish, now hugely important to families moving to and employed in, Brookings County. But, Lakota is offered in reservation schools only.

It's like pulling teeth.

Kayla Gahagan announced that Lakota language instruction is coming to Rapid City Central High School after a hundred years of toothache:
Board member Suzan Nolan said the Lakota language is an essential part of helping keep Native students in school. “One of the things people say is that they are losing their culture and their language, and if we want to be sensitive to keeping kids in school, if we say we offer Lakota, we need to offer a certified instructor,” she said. Nolan recently attended a Native American education conference and said she met several teachers who would be willing to teach Lakota.
The Veterans Administration hospital at Ft. Meade near Sturgis performed lobotomies on some World War II GIs: the Wall Street Journal has a compelling read. Thomas Simmons, a law professor at the University of South Dakota, told readers of the Rapid City Journal the story of one patient.

Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) is calling on the VA to keep the ancient facility in Hot Springs afloat: it's a property infamously known for flying the flag of the Confederate States of America. Why should tribal members in southwestern South Dakota have to go to Rapid City for treatment at an Indian Health Service hospital when a federal one is so much closer to Pine Ridge?

It looks like Marty Jackley has already recused himself from Benda-gate. Not unlike a stopped clock the Rapid Journal editorial board is 2 for 2:
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said he turned the investigation over to the FBI, which was already investigating the EB-5 program. He says it’s a federal matter, and he isn’t going to try to recover the state’s money. Jackley isn’t doing his job, in our view; the state should investigate where state funds went and how they were used. [Rapid City Journal editorial board]
And:
The Belle Fourche River is unsafe for humans; it should be cleaned up.

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