The Rise and Fall of a Dakota Immersion Pre-school

Abstract

This article narrates an attempt to establish a Dakota-language immersion pre-school on an Indian reservation in Minnesota. I begin by outlining the historical experience of the Dakota, emphasising characteristic features such as the geographic dispersal of the Dakota after 1862, the contested role of religion in Dakota life, and the impact of gaming. Next, I recount the creation of a Dakota-language pre-school at Peżihutazizi (Upper Sioux Community) in south-western Minnesota, as part of efforts to revive the Dakota language, and I tell the story of its first six months. I contrast the educational success of the programme, in which the children showed growing mastery of the language, with the political crises that dogged it from the beginning. I then describe the final crisis that led to the resignation of the director and to the programme's demise. Finally, I analyse the downfall of the programme in terms of the colonisation of the mind, specifically drawing on the work of Memmi (1965) in seeking to understand the events described here.