There’s a well-known phrase amongst Indigenous folks about strolling in two worlds: one being a path of conventional teachings, and the opposite being a path within the western world. I’ve associated to and mirrored on this assertion all all through my instructional journey, however particularly as I’ve labored to instill Native language & tradition in our college students.
Rising up, Indigenous historical past was merely one unit amongst dozens centered on western historical past and successes. Present occasions and Indigenous peoples have been by no means in the identical sentence. I felt as if my Native identification – and notably my Lakȟóta identification – was a blip in historical past, not deemed vital sufficient to study. I solely discovered of Lakȟóta teachings at residence, with household. The Lakȟóta language sounded overseas to me till freshman yr of highschool, the place I used to be enrolled in two years of lessons, however ultimately stopped. I struggled all through my life in confidence, sense of belonging, and pleasure.
This expertise influenced me as I started my grasp’s capstone analysis venture about Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa’s Twin Immersion program. My colleagues and I centered on taking instructional teachings and reworking them into culture-based training within the Lakȟóta language. College students at Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa obtain a culture-based training and be taught by the Lakȟóta language and perspective, which is a focus of the curriculum. These college students are rising up in a faculty surroundings the place the Lakȟóta language and tradition is normalized & celebrated.
I vividly bear in mind one expertise once I was interviewing the scholars for my venture. As I requested them questions, they fluidly answered in each English and Lakȟóta, with most of their sentences a mix of the languages. They expressed their gratitude for this training, and confidently assured me that they acknowledge they’re leaders in our group – with one scholar even telling me, “I present I’m proud by simply being Lakȟóta on a regular basis.”
I cried joyful tears after the scholars left as a result of their solutions, particularly this one, was one thing I by no means would have mentioned at their age. It was some of the enlightening & emotional conversations I’ve had in my life.
These college students’ expertise and relationship with training is vastly totally different than that of all Lakȟota generations earlier than, together with mine. This technology of scholars come to highschool on daily basis and sing a Lakȟóta prayer tune. Their core literature consists of conventional tales which were instructed for generations inside our tribe. Classroom administration is carried out by Lakȟóta values and kinship. That is their instructional expertise. They’re proud, assured, and are main the trail of an training system that’s constructed by Indigenous peoples, for Indigenous peoples.
I replicate on my life earlier than educating, and who I’ve grown into now, and infrequently really feel disbelief that I’m fortunate sufficient to stroll this path – a path wealthy with Lakȟóta language and tradition that these college students are strolling alongside me. I’m proud to have performed an element in revitalizing the Lakȟóta language and construct a basis of Lakȟóta information methods and teachings for our future generations. My hope is that fifty years from now, I can be surrounded by a group of fluent Lakȟóta audio system, with their kids and grandchildren studying & strolling that path as our present college students do.
Elyssa Sierra Concha is the Okay-8 Lakota literacy venture coordinator and third/4th Lakota language arts trainer at Maȟpíya Lúta Owáyawa (Pink Cloud Faculty) in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. She has a bachelor of science diploma in English from Black Hills State College, and grasp of arts in indigenous training from Arizona State College. She has labored as an educator for grades Okay-4 since 2018 and teaches grownup language learners since 2019, and is dedicated to Lakȟóta language revitalization and Indigenous training.
