West River Eagle

Lakota Elders honored for keeping Lakota Language alive




CRST elders were honored at the Cheyenne River College Center on Friday for Keeping the Lakota Language Alive

CRST elders were honored at the Cheyenne River College Center on Friday for Keeping the Lakota Language Alive

The Oglala Lakota College/ Cheyenne River College Center honored 70 Cheyenne River La­kota Elders over age 70 who are fluent Lakota language speakers. This event took place at the Ogla­la Lakota College Auditorium on June 19, 2015 at 3:00 p.m.

At the honoring, the elders received a plaque with the en­graving “Preserver of Language”. The elders also received a $100 honorarium for attending.

The college came up with the idea to honor the elders as pre­servers of the language, focusing on those over 70 years of age who had experienced first hand boarding school mistreatment for speaking the Lakota Lan­guage.

According to Dave West, Chey­enne River College Center Di­rector, the college worked with the CRST Cultural Preservation and identified 107 elders across the reservation who were fluent language speakers. West said they drove out and met with all 107 elders and extended them invitations to come to the honoring.

“It took two weeks to complete the visits,” said West.

After the honoring, West said that he received positive feedback from those that were honored.

“It felt good to be able to honor them,” said West.


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