Lakota Language Consortium

The Lakota Language Consortium (LLC)
The Lakota Language Consortium began on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the late 1990s to support the teaching of Lakota (Siouan), becoming the site of several short-term language revitalization projects and a Lakota language immersion program before incorporating a coalition of schools and other Oglala Siouan institutions into the project by 2002. In 2004 the LLC became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, which considers itself one of the foremost Native American language institutions.

The Lakota Language Consortium has published four editions of K-12 textbooks, audio CDs, teaching material, and assessment tests. The LLC provides a professional teacher training program for Lakota, which includes an undergraduate Education degree in "Teaching Lakota as a Second Language." They also published two editions of the Lakota dictionary (of 23,000 words), manage an online Lakota language community, and have translated 20 of the Berenstein Bears books into Lakota.

The Lakota Language Consortium's mission statement: "To provide every Lakota child with the means to become a speaker of Lakota as a first language within the home, or as a fluent second-language speaker from school; to ensure that the language is used every household of the reservation, and that children are raised at an ever-increasing rate as first language speakers; a full and vibrant linguistic and literary community that develops in the language through numerous avenues, both in and out of school; and to support the Lakota language as it grows in usage and complexity, and remains vital within a range of genres and purposes."

The LLC's slogan: "Revitalizing Lakota, one child at a time."

Links for The Lakota Language Consortium
The Lakota Language Consortium website

The LLC's Facebook page