Skip to main content
WoLakota Project & Teachings of Our Elders

01 Aileen Little Ghost: Introduction

Explore 01 Aileen Little Ghost: Introduction with available transcripts, learning questions and source alignments in the South Dakota and North Dakota Elder archive.

Interview · North Dakota · Aileen Little Ghost

Themes: Land & stewardship, Language & revitalization, Kinship & family, Education & learning, Values & generosity, Arts & expression, Children & young people, Intergenerational learning

View the original resource

New transcript-based questions created with AI assistance using Scott Simpson’s Learn About and Learn From guide.

Learn About questions

1. How does Aileen Little Ghost describe receiving her two names? 2. What forms of transportation does she remember using to attend school? 3. How does she connect raising her adopted children with helping one another?

Learn From questions

1. What do the names I have been given tell me about my relationships or responsibilities? 2. Who has helped me when I needed support, and how might I offer similar care? 3. How do I recognize family relationships formed through adoption or choice in my own community?

Transcripts

01 Aileen Little Ghost: Introduction

Watch this interview on YouTube
I was born and raised in the Koala South Dakota in a log cabin in a proudly say understand my mother and that’s really essential because I have no disease just arthritis in my knees I feel great in my Indian name is I got two of them and my family named me the one that walks at the top of things they never spank me they never scolded me you know always well almost the queen of my family and they treat me as such in my second name is that I want eh none away and I worked with the d-o-t for a long time now my husband and I used to go to those meetings quarterly meetings and they surprised me I read that was right after my husband passed away into the spirit world and come in now stand on this it was folded and not on the Pendleton blanket and they tied a plume in my left side of my air and they named me nobly is not only and the point came with that and I want to say the way it’s written in Dakota a honey that means long time ago my liege not only helped her people or at the court Czechia Oh cash at all she not Gabby means to cover themselves with mother earth but today Oh cash limpet lay there [Music] komak hockey huh she’s still helping her people Wembley shea way is still helping her people today and I like that name mm-hmm yes and I’m Alec Jota from acapella South Dakota and Sitting Bull is my great I can say 4 times great-great-grandfather lien Regency I mean how do you say lien see of them Sitting Bull and I was determined to graduate 12th grade I went for his 10th grade and my husband to be seen the hardship it’s not hardship it’s a living it’s our way of living I went to school in a team a wagon and in winter time theme is a hitch to a sleigh so they’re smooth right with the kids at school and amber seen that and he said my husband to be our 19 years old and he was 26 he was fresh out of Korea Korean conflict and now I can read body language and then I can I can feel he needed help so he struggled with alcohol and he went to all the churches but still drink wine so I left school 10th grade I went with my husband-to-be and I couldn’t have children so we adopted Sheila first and then five years later we adopted Vinson and they’re both helping me now there is so thankful that I brought them up you know the EOP area I hope we erase them it’s not easy but again that’s but that’s life ya gotta help each other when the need is there

Video title and URL from the supplied Teachings of Our Elders transcript document.

Source materials

Supplied transcript documents. Text and transcription uncertainties are preserved as supplied.