Cheyenne River Lakota Language Speakers Project
OUTDOOR PORTRAIT GALLERY IS NOW CLOSED.
Welcome to a visual honoring of the Lakota Language speakers and language carriers from the Wakpá Wašté Lakota Oyáte. We are at a vital time to prioritize learning from our relatives who carry our Lakota language and to speak our language together. During the boarding school era, our Lakota language was forbidden and our ancestors who preserved our language risked their own safety so that our culture could continue. Our elders share the history of how they were once prohibited from speaking, the only language they knew and we carry those historical traumas with us in the same ways that we carry perseverance and the large love that we have for our oyate (people). Those who have preserved the Lakota language are now educating my generation and our younger generations. I believe that we have a responsibility to honor their courage and carry the teachings forward, so that the fight doesn’t end with our beloved relatives. I began this project in 2018, in collaboration with my relatives who spoke and carried the lakota language in a series of portraits and short interviews. The project then expanded organically through collaboration with the Lakota language speakers and carriers from the entire Wakpá Wašté community. Please join this honoring and call to action to retain our Lakota Language by prioritizing your time with those who speak our Lakota Language.
All Lakota Language Speakers and Language carriers from the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation are encouraged and invited to participate in the project and honoring.
Please reach out to Dawn E. LeBeau at dawneelebeau@gmail.com to visit more about the project.
Pilamayayepi (gratitude).