Educator PD: Stephanie Charging Eagle- Language Pt. 3 A Vision for the Next 20 Years

Language - A Vision for the Next 20 Years - Stephanie Charging Eagle As Lakota people, we also are very visionary and very holistic in the way we view life. And so every day is one step towards a vision, towards a goal. You have to take steps to achieve that goal. And my vision for our language is in 20 years or so beyond that we have our children, our grandchildren, even some of our adults become speakers, but become speakers because it is who they are. Not trying to do anything more with the language, but become comfortable in speaking that language as a language spoken at home in the community. Not to become well known, not to make money with it, but just use the language as the foundation to who we are as a Lakota people. In 20 years, I envision our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren using the language at home with each other just because that's where it needs to be. That's who we are. We are not about making media to teach language. We are not about making dictionaries. We are not about making money. We are Lakota people and the language is our life. It's our communication. It's who we are. It determines how we will live our life, not only within ourselves, but with each other. And that has to become strengthened. And so in 20 years, language should be a language. It should be oral, but also we have people who are literate in it. And that is my goal. That is the only purpose for my work in Lakota language for now, you know, while we go do what we are meant to do. And we understand where the young are coming from because we've been there learning the language, learning English as a second language. You know, as first language learners of Lakota language, we experienced learning English just like the way they're learning Lakota now. But there were, you know, strategies that were taken for us to learn. It's sometimes not popular, but that's okay because it worked, you know. But for some of us, we maintain that language despite some of the abuse, some of, you know, the atrocities that you hear about with the language loss. So, you know, we look at that. We understand where these learners are coming from. But we also, unlike English, have to also know that there is an important part of the Lakota language that they have to embrace here. Spiritual people as people of a nation that think of themselves as a whole rather than individually. And so a lot of these, you know, they call all a lot of what I'm talking about old school. And so I guess we are old school, but we also know the reason that we know these things and the reason we do what we do. And it's to hold on to the principles of our ancestors, the beliefs, the values, because those are an important part of who we are as Lakota people. So that is where I am coming from. I don't like to correct people when a woman says a male term, you know, inappropriately. Because they tend to see us as, you know, being this person that is a know-it-all and, you know, and so we don't like to come off, you know, doing that. And so it's, you know, there's a transition somewhere. There's a line somewhere that we have to meet and say, okay, today is a new generation. And there are so many things to relearn, to learn on both sides. How can we do that? How can we come together without losing those values, the principles of who we are as Lakota people through the language? And so that is a challenge that I have to embrace because I don't see too many of our language speakers coming forward because that's just not their way. And I guess I'm old school, but I can be new school also. You say when people today say, hii haani waashtey, that is actually not Lakota thought. That is English thought being said in Lakota because all we did was we took good morning and we said it in Lakota, but it's not the thought. And I remember growing up and people would, upon greeting each other or seeing each other, they would say, hii haani waashtey, you know. Oh, it's so early in the morning, you know, like, so what are you doing this time of the morning? Or they'd say some greetings like, aah, nitaaya he, or toon nika jaa he. Or, you know, they say, you know, it's inquiring about their well-being, you know, and they don't say good morning because we don't know if it's a good morning for that person. It may be for us. And those are words that we are becoming aware of losing, you know, the thought behind language. And that's really, that's significant because as we have Lakota language teachers who are going into the schools and teaching the language, many of these teachers are young and they may not be fluent speakers or as first language learners. And so they don't have that Lakota thought and philosophy already. So they are taking English thought and turning it, translating it to Lakota. And a good example of how that happens and is being used in the classroom is the Berenstain Bears. Now that's an English story, English children's story, but it's been taken and translated to Lakota. So you have now a Lakota story with English thought. What really should be happening is we tell our stories. Example, the Ixtomi story. Tell that in Lakota to our children so they understand why these stories are. What is the purpose of Berenstain Bears, you know, story to our children, to our way of life?