There’s not much in the way of Dakota-Lakota language material on the internet. Dakota and Lakota are two closely-related dialects of the Sioux Native American language. Somewhat confusingly, the Lakota dialect is what is spoken in the Dakotas, while the Dakota dialect is spoken in Minnesota and Manitoba.
I studied the Dakota language while living in Minneapolis in the early 1990’s, during one of (one of ?) my “strange languages” phases. I really like the language. As an “active” speaker I can’t do much with, but I can still recognize verb conjugations and some basic vocabulary when I see it or hear it (not that that happens much). During my Lunar New Year time off I was surfing the internet looking for random things, and I took a moment to wonder if anyone, anywhere, had posted some Dakota Language poetry.
The below is the only thing I found in that vein. It was written by someone named John Hunt Peacock, Jr., a few years ago. He has been learning Dakota as a way to get in touch with his own cultural roots. Finding written materials in the language is hard – there are only a few thousand speakers in the world. He learned his language from the Dakota Bible and other Christian materials in the language, but he feels ambivalent about Christianity.
The poem is quite brutal in its assessment of the Christian legacy provided by the European Americans. He is both glad there is a Dakota language Bible, and bitter about the fact that that Bible was used to justify the mistreatment and dispossession of his people (“the cross of the Dakota culture’s crucifixion,” he writes). He asks how he could possibly be Christian.
TOKED CHRIST TAWOKEYE HEMACA OWAKIHI HWO?
Miye ca wowinape un wati, wowapi ska akan,
Iyuieskapi topa dena —
Dakota Wowapi Wakan Kin,
Wocekiye Ikceka Wowapi Kin,
Mahpiya Oicimani Yapi Kin,
Sina Sapa Wowinwange —
icipahyapi okatanpi wan Dakota wicohan yapi,
Dakota iapi kin nipi, wotanin waste dena kapi.
Wowapi woyakapi, toked wakiye sni,
kais wawihingyapi sica, caje un econpi,
Miye ca, wicoie ed otokahe ekta wicoie heca,
Wan iye qa iyohi Dakota wicoie waste!
HOW COULD I BE A CHRISTIAN?
To me, living in exile on this white page,
these four translations —
the Dakota Bible,
Book of Common prayer,
“Pilgrim’s Progress”,
and Catholic Catechism —
once the cross of Dakota culture’s crucifixion,
have become the gospel of the resurrected Dakota language.
I don’t care what these books say or mean,
or what atrocities are stll committed in their name.
To me, in the beginning was the word,
and the word,
each and every Dakota word,
was good!
