Turning a Corner in Language Revitalization: Sitting Bull College’s Lakota Language Capacity Building Initiative.

Hauff et al. describe the community impacts, creation, successes, and lessons learned through Sitting Bull College’s language revitalization program: Lakota Language Capacity Building Initiative. They hope to share what they have learned in their revitalization work with other Indigenous communities who wish to implement similar programs. They explain how including elder speakers can facilitate the re-creation of a speech community, and how various assessments, especially videos, can be used to help student self-awareness as well as program evaluation. They also call for increased scholarship about the successes and failures of other language revitalization projects, and note the need for sustainable, long-term funding.

Hauff, T., Walker, N., & Bannister, E. (2024). Turning a corner in language revitalization: Sitting Bull College’s Lakota language capacity building initiative. Tribal College, 35(3), 60–64. https://tribalcollegejournal.org/turning-a-corner-in-language-revitalization-sitting-bull-colleges-lakota-language-capacity-building-initiative/