Reading and Writing the Lakota Language: Yes, We Can!

Abstract

As was my usual habit at the university in Nebraska where I was teaching, I picked up a copy of the campus newspaper to read during my office hours. I was dismayed at a story entitled May Appear on County Polls that the paper ran on that day. It read, in part: Sheridan County's polls may have to add an unexpected language to the ballots this November. A mandate from the United States Department of Justice might result in the addition of Lakota Sioux language assistance to the ballots for County' According to the Nebraska secretary of state, the county contains a sliver of the Pine Ridge Reservation, and even though it does not qualify for assistance on population data alone, the presence of reservation land was enough to require language assistance. The article went on to say that because the Sioux language has many dialects, the county would have to go with predominant dialect, probably Lakota Sioux. The article concluded, Also, Sioux is an oral language, so it can't simply be written on the ballots (emphasis added).