About the Project
The D|Lakota language has been declared a critically endangered language with the average age of a fluent speaker being 65 years old.
Working with valued Elders, Wisdom Keepers and current speakers across the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, we are recording and creating an ever expanding audible dictionary of core words and phrases.
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T​​his project was born from a desire of the people.
A multigenerational group of Lakota youth, adults and elders gathered to discuss how to address the stagnation in Lakota language learning. The group’s language skills ranged from non-Lakota speakers to beginning learners to language educators and fluent speakers.
They recognized that part of the stagnation problem was caused by other language groups who were pushing various orthographies as the "only right way" to learn. Those same groups put an unaffordable price for most to purchase the resources and tools that might otherwise be helpful additions to reclaiming the language.
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To sidestep those roadblocks, our non-profit organization decided to focus on language learning in its truest form- auditory and visual learning.
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With the design of our dictionary, our users focus on learning the correct pronunciation and the meaning of words and how to string those words together in a simple, meaningful way.
Language writing can be learned as a secondary skill once an individual is able to actually speak the language.
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We want people to use the language or we risk losing it all together. After the pandemic took such a large number of fluent speakers, the need is more critical than ever.​​
Language is also the root to reclaim the deep structure of our culture, spirituality and roles thus having a major effect on our local communities and on society as a whole as Lakota comes from and perpetuates our natural relationship with each other and mother earth.
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Envision this: Lakota youth who can speak their own language are entrenched in their culture, values and lifeways which benefit not just only our tribe but the greater good.
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We invite people use, share and support our dictionary and its expanding content so that this vision becomes a reality.