We used these funds to cover mostly overhead (rent, accounting services, payroll, fees), but it also made up the shortfall of the costs we incurred with Lakota Summer Institute (LSI) and other Lakota projects, allowing us to complete and enhance project deliverables that otherwise would not have been adequately funded.
Thanks to the generous support of Puffin Foundation West, LLC has experienced an increase in program capacity and had the opportunity to continue work on ongoing projects that were not directly funded in our 2023 budget. Below, you’ll find updates on our work in the last 6 months to provide learning and language revitalization resources to our community.
Our 2023 Lakota Summer Institute (LSI) was held in-person for the first time since 2019, from June 5 – 16. This 2-week event had 48 participants, who chose between three immersive tracks: Teacher, Pre-Intermediate, and Beginner. The sessions were taught by Alex FireThunder, Jan Ullrich, Allen Wilson, Naomi Last Horse, Kim Campbell, and Ben Black Bear.
This Spring, LLC also published our podcast Wičháho Blihélya, meaning “with energetic voices”, where Lakota speakers discuss various aspects of contemporary life in Lakota country in 2023. With the participation of other Lakota speakers in each episode, the podcast offers diverse perspectives and voices to the listeners, providing an opportunity for advanced learners to further develop their language skills by listening to fluent speakers and engaging with the language in a meaningful context. Each podcast has over 600 views on youtube, and approximately 500 listens on podcasting platforms, assuring us that these interviews are a useful and a well-received resource for Lakota language learners.
We have produced and published two YouTube videos as part of our Lakota picture book series. Each video features fluent Lakota speakers narrating the stories alongside corresponding images and text from the picture books. Viewers can follow along with the bolded words on the screen as they are spoken, enhancing their reading and language comprehension skills. The first video,Tȟašíyagnuŋpa na Siŋtéȟla or “Meadowlark and the Rattlesnake,” depicts a captivating Lakota story documented by Ella Deloria. The second video, Wačhí Awášteyalaka he? or “Do you like to dance?,” introduces Lakota language related to dancing,. We are working toward finishing 2 additional videos for the books – Matȟóla Ločhíŋ-He – Matȟóla is Hungry, and Waúŋyutapi Iyéhaŋtu! | Time to Eat!, and we plan to continue expanding this collection in the future.
Additionally, LLC is developing 16 new Lakota picture books. Five are original stories written by Alex Fire Thunder and illustrated by artists Tokeya Richardson and Chelysa R. Owens-Cyr, one book was written by students under Marion Blue Arm, and the remaining ten books have been translated into Lakota from templates created by The Language Conservancy.
And finally, these funds were used to continue work on projects begun in years past. Namely, in 2015 we released the Lakota Vocab Builder app, and this year we were able to undertake a migration of the app into a newer platform. We have also made a significant number of improvements to the Owóksape app and desktop learning platforms based on community feedback. We’ve also worked to develop a new grammar unit with over 50 new lessons that will be available soon.
