“When I went home, I talked Lakota… because of that I will now have a job here,” observed Don Moccasin, the mastermind behind Sinte Gleska University’s Lakota Documentaries. Photo by Mark Adamson

From the beginning, preservation and continuity of tribal histories and cultures have been at the center of the strategic vision for tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) (Bordeaux, 1989). TCUs have developed the infrastructure and networks to support the revitalization, preservation, and teaching of Indigenous languages and cultures. But while tribal colleges serve as cultural hubs for many Native communities and provide students with educational opportunities in remote, rural locations, they are also among the largest local employers in many Native communities. They create jobs in the intellectual sector and contribute to local and regional economies.

Native American studies programs have formed the backbone of tribal college curricula, and many TCUs have set up specialized Native studies departments. Oglala Lakota College developed an associate’s degree program in Lakota studies that was accredited in 1983 and subsequently evolved into a bachelor’s program (Oglala Lakota College, 2017). Other tribal colleges have followed suit. In developing such programs, TCUs have created full-time jobs for language and culture experts as instructors and archivists. Some of these experts lacked formal training according to Western educational standards, but in Indigenous societies, where traditional education models emphasize learning through experience, elders are venerated as teachers and are repositories of knowledge. Tribal colleges have enabled them to market their skills and enter the cash economy.

For many of these elders and cultural experts this has been a major change. Some were abused as children for speaking their Native languages and later marginalized in the job market, resulting in few economic opportunities. But today, tribal colleges value their linguistic and cultural background and offer employment for the very knowledge and skills that were once chastised.

THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY brought out a worldwide concern with the loss of cultural diversity and human knowledge encoded in languages. Research studies in language endangerment drew the United Nations’ attention to the issue and led to a call for the protection and promotion of Indigenous languages. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), for example, created the Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages, which went on to develop a methodology to assess language vitality (UNESCO, 2003).

When many 21st-century tribal communities in the United States started counting down to the last speakers of their traditional languages, tribal colleges, as intellectual centers in these communities, assumed a critical role in the leadership of language renewal and revitalization. “Because language and culture are the lifeblood of a people, they must be visible; otherwise, they will die,” state Benham and Mann in their article “Culture and Language Matters: Defining, Implementing, and Evaluating” (2003). “It is, therefore, the responsibility of native institutions of education and the communities they serve to create a safe place for native languages and cultures to survive and thrive.”

In the U.S., the Native American Languages Act of 1990 recognized the language rights of American Indians, and subsequent legislation provided funding for language programs. Funding became available through the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and, more recently, through the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation’s Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP). Various private foundations and donors have also contributed to language revitalization efforts.

Language and culture preservation and maintenance projects have created unprecedented opportunities and activities in traditional communities. The colleges have hosted powwows, cultural events, and art shows that attract visitors from the reservation and surrounding communities. For example, Sinte Gleska University’s annual Founders’ Days celebration showcases five days of community forums, presentations, art and film shows, and a three-day powwow, which is the largest indoor powwow on the Rosebud reservation. These events promote the visibility of culture, stimulate interest in cultural activities, and provide venues for intellectual and economic exchange.

Sisseton Wahpeton College is one of four tribal colleges participating in the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s Voices of Our Ancestors project. This language revitalization effort has opened up opportunities for students and Dakota language speakers alike.

The cultural revitalization movement grew the demand for the services of traditional language speakers and culture experts. They were needed in the areas of language teaching and documentation, curriculum development, and translation. In response to this growing need, Sinte Gleska University (SGU) developed one of the largest Lakota studies departments in the country. In 2005, it employed seven instructors who were fluent, first-language Lakota speakers and experts of traditional culture. Many others, especially traditional singers and elders, were contracted to assist with classes and cultural events. Other TCUs, such as Oglala Lakota College and Sisseton Wahpeton College, have likewise employed elders, Indigenous language speakers, and cultural experts.

The renewed interest in language research and curriculum needs also saw the development and expansion of new, cutting-edge projects, such as SGU’s Lakota Documentaries oral history project. In the late 1990s, Don Moccasin—a Rosebud Sioux tribal member and nationally known educator, traditional powwow dancer, singer, Sun Dancer, artist, and a fluent Lakota speaker— developed an interest in recording tribal elders as a tribute to his late father. In 2000, he was hired as a director of the elder documentary project at SGU’s Sicangu Heritage Center. Moccasin started building an oral history collection on video for the university archives so that the cultural knowledge and Lakota language would be preserved and passed down to future generations. In one of the recordings, he proudly discusses how his ability to speak Lakota led to a job offer at the university:

Mom and Dad talked [Lakota] a very long time ago. And afterwards, me. When I finally grew up and went away to school . . . nobody in my age category spoke Lakota there, just me. When I went home, I talked Lakota. But now, because of that, probably, because of that I will now have a job here. I will have a permanent job here pretty soon, for the university. And what I will be doing for that permanent job is, I will be going all over the reservation recording. And then I will be translating those [recordings], because all, all of them, they speak Lakota (Walking Eagle, et al., n.d.).

When I met Don Moccasin in early 2006, I volunteered to help specifically with targeting language documentation. By the spring of 2008, the project was awarded the first research grant for translation. We recruited fluent Lakota speakers to transcribe and translate the recordings. After Moccasin’s passing in 2009, I directed the project for seven more years. Although funding was scarce, the project grew to employ at least 12 contributors as short-term contractors, male and female, from young adults to elders. For some of them who were either full-time students or busy elders with many family responsibilities, this type of employment was ideal to supplement their income.

The project’s expansion created opportunities for individuals with a variety of skills: videographers, animators, artists, translators, editors, editorial assistants, and IT specialists, leading to further career opportunities. Take for instance the project’s volunteer editorial assistant, Kamile Maciulaityte. After earning her master’s degree in 2012, she moved on to work with Indigenous organizations in South America.

TODAY, PROGRAMS PROMOTING TEACHING and use of Native languages are on the rise at tribal colleges and universities. These programs are strengthening relationships with the community as they involve the elders and local cultural experts. They are also changing the relationship of community members to their languages and cultural heritage as they provide opportunities for language and cultural work (Antoine, 2014). There is an increasing interest in the traditional cultures and languages as the people start seeing them as possible careers. Language teaching in the communities turns the specialized knowledge of Native speakers into a job skill, opens job opportunities for local people, and helps bring in related resources.

Sinte Gleska University’s Lakota Documentaries oral history project records and preserves the voices of Lakota language speakers for future generations. This multi-faceted project has led to a variety of tech-related jobs, including transcribing the recorded segments.

In August 2017, a new Dakota language revitalization project entitled “Voices of Our Ancestors” was launched at four tribal colleges. Sisseton Wahpeton College, Cankdeska Cikana Community College, Fort Peck Community College, and Nebraska Indian Community College partnered with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) to develop and implement this two-year program which will train 20 students in the Dakota language and culture (American Indian College Fund, 2017; Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, 2017). According to Andrew Vig, an SMSC member and planning coordinator for Voices of Our Ancestors, the project design provides for four students and one instructor per location, in the form of fulltime jobs or student stipends as arranged by individual colleges.

The project grew out of the pressing need to maintain the critically endangered Dakota language and train language teachers. The goal of the project is to produce fluent second-language speakers to work as schoolteachers. The program will lead to an associate’s degree and a teacher’s license. Wayne Two Bulls, vice president of academics at Fort Peck Community College, emphasizes that in Montana, the program graduates will be able to apply for a Class 7 Specialist Certificate, which will enable them to teach courses in Dakota language and culture in public schools. In South Dakota, which experiences a teacher shortage in general and Native American language and culture teachers in particular, it is expected that the students will be employed before they even complete the program. The program has a requirement to teach the language for two years after completion.

Training in language teaching methodologies and instructional technologies is another important component of the project. Students are becoming more receptive to technology-based instruction. Also, due to a teacher shortage, schools in the region are increasingly relying on digital curricula. Thus, these skills are critical in the local and regional job market.

Modern technologies can help not only in language teaching, but also in connecting speakers and students at remote locations or through long distances. For example, Dakota speakers are spread out from Canada to northeast Nebraska. Project participants use programs such as Box, which enables document and information sharing, and Zoom, which provides online conferencing and distance-learning capabilities. Students also use social media for their learning activities. Hence the project will contribute to the development of modern, tech-savvy educators and expand the service area by connecting the scattered communities of speakers and students.

DO MODERN TRIBAL COMMUNITIES need to revitalize their traditional languages? Andrew Vig says that cultural revitalization is a reality and that he has observed more dancers, more drum groups, and more people wanting to learn the Dakota language than ever before. “I learned the language as an adult,” explains Vig, “and for the first time I understood what it meant to be Dakota and live the Dakota way of life.” Avital part of identity, the language encodes philosophical knowledge and culture. “If you have your language, you have all the teachings,” says Vig, echoing the words of linguists and other tribal elders.

The language is one of the cornerstones of tribal sovereignty, along with the land base, the constitution, and tribal membership. Languages are being documented and a new generation of speakers is being taught by the elders to pass the language down to the children and future generations. Language programs promote the visibility of and interest in the culture and help colleges to build relationships with the community. And language and cultural preservation can create new, unprecedented job opportunities for people who have been economically marginalized, enabling them to rediscover and value their skills.

Jurgita Antoine, Ph.D., is a field linguist and anthropologist who has worked with Indigenous organizations and tribal colleges in the Plains region for the past 20 years.

REFERENCES

American Indian College Fund. (2017). Cankdeska Cikana Community College and Partners to Launch Dakota Language Training Program. Retrieved October 18, 2017, from http://collegefund.org/news-list/cankdeska-cikanacommunity- college-partners-launch-dakota-language-training-program/

Antoine, J. (2014). Lakota Documentaries: Working with Cultural Heritage at a Tribal University. Anthropology News, 55(3). Retrieved from http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2014/03/13/lakota-documentaries/

Benham, M.K.P., & Mann, H. (2003). Culture and Language Matters: Defining, Implementing, and Evaluating. In M.K.P. Benham and W.J. Stein (Eds.), The Renaissance of American Indian Higher Education (pp. 167–191). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Bordeaux, L. (1989). Commitment to Community: An Introduction to this Journal. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, 1(1), 4–5.

Oglala Lakota College. (2017). 2017–2018 Catalog. Kyle, SD: Oglala Lakota College.

Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. (2017). Shakopee Tribe and Partnering Tribal Colleges to Launch Dakota Language Training Program. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from: https://shakopeedakota.org/shakopeetribe-partnering-tribal-colleges-launch-dakota-language-training-program/

Sinte Gleska University. (2016). General Catalog, 2016–2018. Mission, SD: Sinte Gleska University.

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section’s Ad Hoc Expert Group, & Drude, S. (2003). Language Vitality and Endangerment. Paris, France: UNESCO.

Walking Eagle, M.S., Bone Shirt, R., Black Bear Jr., B., & Antoine, J. n.d. [ca. 2000]. Lakota Documentaries: The Stories of Don Moccasin. Manuscript in author’s possession.