Maintaining Lakota on the Cheyenne River Reservation

 

The Lakota language in South Dakota is currently facing a process of attrition similar to that of many native languages around the world. The older generation still consists of fluent first language speakers and commonly extends to 40- and 50-year-olds, while the younger generations can typically understand but no longer speak fluently. Many of today's youth and children can barely understand, and they speak very little or no Lakota. Lakota is not cool. It has been replaced by English, the language of multi-media and of modern life.