Revitalization of Lakhota language on Pine Ridge Reservation: waiting to hit rock bottom

Abstract

Lakhota is one of a few North American Indian languages that still counts the speakers of the language in the thousands. However, their age structure is alarming as there are very few speakers younger than seventeen and even the age group of today's parents usually do not speak the language. Various examples of successful language revitalization prove that it is not impossible to restart inter-generational mother-tongue transmission but they prove at the same time that it is a very difficult task. The following study analyzes the situation of Lakhota language teaching at schools, the role of schools and involvement of the community in language conservation issues. It also focuses on Lakhota opinions about standardized testing and immersion. My research was conducted on the Pine Ridge Reservation and it is based on interviews with 52 participants. It compares opinions of teachers and parents of school children with the objective to find out whether the teaching of Lakhota is adequate with respect to the current condition the language is in.

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