"Once, the Lakota language was suppressed in South Dakota schools.

Now, many schools on or near reservations give children a taste of the language, with words for colors, numbers and family members.

But there's been a lack of formal structure taught in schools because instructors, although perhaps fluent in Lakota themselves, had no training in sentence structure or conjugation.

That's all going to change with the development of a bachelor's degree program at the University of South Dakota and Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, N.D., designed to train educators to teach Lakota as a second language.

There long has been an American Indian studies program at USD, with instruction in basic and intermediate Lakota.

But the difference between that program and the new degree is significant - the emphasis on passing the language down to the next generation is unique."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Lakota language program fills void (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 11/29)