Oyate Woyaka
Oyate Woyaka
Preview: Special | 2m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
"Oyate Woyaka" tells the story of the Lakota language history, loss and revitalization.
"Oyate Woyaka" tells the story of the Lakota language history, loss and revitalization. The film touches on the deep history and spirituality of the language, the shocking history that caused Lakota to be on the verge of extinction and the modern efforts being made to bring language back to life and the immense challenges this effort faces.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Oyate Woyaka
Oyate Woyaka
Preview: Special | 2m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
"Oyate Woyaka" tells the story of the Lakota language history, loss and revitalization. The film touches on the deep history and spirituality of the language, the shocking history that caused Lakota to be on the verge of extinction and the modern efforts being made to bring language back to life and the immense challenges this effort faces.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Oyate Woyaka
Oyate Woyaka is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
For Indian people.
Lakota people.
Language is, very sacred and very important.
It's always been that way.
I grew up from the 50s and 60, and my first language was Lakota.
Life was, fantastic, I would say.
No worries, no pain.
And then boarding school.
I had my younger sister were taken to boarding school.
We couldn't speak our language at all.
Even at night when we were put to bed, we'd whisper.
We'd start whispering.
It was like some been standing nearby.
The lights would go on and we knew it was going to happen.
It was a painful experience to intentionally kill languages that had been existing for thousands and thousands of years.
What a horrific crime.
Throughout the history, our people were banned from speaking our own language.
That destroyed our internal being.
So the newer generation of indigenous people that were born with English inside of internal beings to have our people being Lakota, they have to go back to the ancestral, the language.
Retake the legacy.
Lakota studies isn't just one lucky thing.
It's got language arts.
It's got science there.
It's got math, and it's got social studies in there.
So put it back where it belongs.
It belongs in these classes.
I.
Our children are very sacred, very sacred.
That's why they call them.
What kind?
They have a spirit.
They come from the Lakota home.
You have to send them to school to find out who they are.
Oh.
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