Lakota Language Consortium

The Lakota Language Consortium began as a dream by the elders and educators on the reservations of South Dakota to save the sacred language of their ancestors for future generations. In the late 1990s, Leonard Little Finger, director of the Lakota Studies Department at Loneman School and Wil Meya, an anthropologist, initiated a series of Lakota language projects on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation that became the starting point for the organization. These short-term projects produced innovative multimedia computer materials for a newly formed Lakota language immersion program. Their collaboration continued working to develop more effective Lakota teaching materials. By 2002, Little Finger and Meya were able to enlist a coalition of schools and institutions in an attempt to work cooperatively on Lakota revitalization. After several different operating models, the Lakota Language Consortium evolved into an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2004 under the linguistic directorship of Jan Ullrich. By the fall of that year, LLC published the Level 1 textbook, the Level 1 Audio CD, the Level 1 Flashcard Set, two Lakota picture books, and the Lakota Alphabet Strip. By the end of 2005, LLC published the Level 2 textbook, continued teacher-training workshops, and develop additional curriculum materials including picture books and computer multimedia. Today, the LLC is an organization with broad support among Lakota community members and linguists - all working together to bring back the Lakota language. LLC provides Lakota language materials to over 18 affiliate schools and institutions. In all, we are now providing thousands of students throughout the Dakotas with access to their language. Our united vision of Lakota language revitalization has produced the first-ever professionally developed Lakota language materials for elementary school children. LLC is working hard to make sure that the future is bright for the Lakota language. We are producing new textbook levels, dictionaries, and many other programs. We are also working energetically to expand our capacity to further achieve our revitalization goals. It is important to make people everywhere aware of the struggle that languages like Lakota are in. After learning about us, we hope you also feel that Native languages are an irreplaceable resource that need to be saved from extinction.

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