Dakota iapi nina teunhidapi. We all cherish our Dakota language. As a former grantmaker in Native Language Revitalization, there are efforts underway among Indigenous people throughout the world to renew, restore and revitalize language. Language is the root of a people's identity, culture, knowledge systems and lifeways. I support wholeheartedly the efforts of AAIA to revitalize the Dakota language for a new generation. The academic benefits of language and culture based education for Native students is well-documented.
The Association On American Indian Affairs, Inc. has worked extensively to create much-needed materials, including storybooks, posters, audio CDs, teacher phrase books, and CD-Roms, for children and adults learning Dakota, an endangered indigenous language of the Northern Plains and adjacent woodlands. Resources for Dakota, especially children's resources, are extremely hard to come by. Most Dakota language teachers spend what limited planning time they have creating their own materials. For myself and other Dakota language teachers, the professional-quality materials from AAIA have been indispensable. Not only are their resources centered in the Dakota way of life, they also can be easily integrated with topics (fall harvest, health, life cycle, important political figures, etc) already covered in a standard classroom. Furthermore, all of the materials are developed under the guidance of elders or fluent Dakota speakers, and often, young language learners take part in creating them as well! Most of those who are fluent Dakota speakers are 50 years of age or older, so in the effort to revitalize the language, our most important task is to retain the wisdom of the elders by passing their knowledge on to the younger generations. Through their work in language preservation, AAIA is doing just that!
Associaion on American Indian Affairs work is integral to the Dakota community and especially the Minnesota Dakota. AAIA has been able to produce a number of Dakota language resources that are helpful in the revitalization and preservation of the Dakota langauge. With approximately 8 fluent Dakota speakers in Minnesota, accessing resources for language learning is crucial to the survival of our language. With few D-dialect Dakota language materials, we continue to rely on AAIA. Without financial resources, AAIA would not be able to provide this role in our Dakota communities.