June 4, 2002
Bloomington, Ind. (AP) Linguists at Indiana University have teamed up with schools– in North Dakota and South Dakota to help preserve ‘ Lakota , the dying language of the Sioux Indians who once inhabited much of the Great Plains states.
Within a decade, experts fear that fewer than 1 in 20 Sioux will be able to speak– Lakota. Within a generation, it could become a dead language, studied by scholars but no longer spoken.
The IU project will try to counteract decades of neglect that threatened to eliminate a– language once spoken by one of the nation's largest tribes.
For half a century, the federal government tried to wipe out the ‘ Lakota language. In– government-run boarding schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American Indian students were punished if caught speaking it.
Suppression of the language stopped in the 1930s, but it was not until Indians on– reservations gained control of their schools in the 1970s that ‘ Lakota could be reintroduced.
But few of the native speakers were trained to be teachers. There was little money for– textbooks, training or other resources.
"Things have gotten so desperate in the last 20 years ... they've slowly come to the– realization that the only realistic way to bring the language back is bring in help," said the director of the Lakota Language Consortium and an Indiana University graduate student.
Indiana University has been a center for the study of American Indian languages since– the 1940s.
Through IU's American Indian Studies Research Institute, the ‘ Lakota Language– Consortium is embarking on a 16-year plan to rewrite the curriculums of 38 school systems that teach 18,000 students.
The consortium will standardize the alphabet and modernize the vocabulary of the– language, develop textbooks and write computer software. It will also create teacher-training programs and offer Lakota language-immersion experiences that will– eventually reach from preschool to college.
The project is funded in part by the school systems, but it is seeking support from– private gifts and Congress to provide $5 million a year.
About half of the nation's 100,000 Sioux live on reservations in the Plains states of the– West, many of them battling poverty and substance abuse.
Similar projects in Hawaii and Alaska suggest, however, that language revitalization– efforts improve students' academic performance, enrich cultures and combat social problems.
The reintroduction of a traditional language raises children's interest in school, said– Doug Parks, assistant director of the IU American Indian Institute.
Traditional school curriculums are written from the perspective of white, middle-class– America.
"There is just no way that ‘ Lakota students who live in isolated conditions on a– reservation can relate to that," Parks told The Herald-Times for a story published Friday.
Still, support for the reintroduction of ‘ Lakota is not universal.
School leaders and Sioux elders sought IU's help with the project and have worked– closely with university officials. But some parents have objected to having children learn ‘ Lakota in a classroom.
Parks insists the program will not try to replace English with ‘ Lakota "You can assimilate perfectly fine and still be bilingual," he said. "The more languages– you know, the further ahead you are in understanding and appreciating your own language." For linguists, the preservation of ‘ Lakota as a living language is akin to saving an– endangered species.
During the next century, ‘ said, 90 percent of the languages spoken throughout the– world are expected to disappear.
"These are languages that have a particular way of seeing the world, that have a unique– way of seeing the environment and spirituality and family," he said. "These languages represent a lot more than the way something sounds."