WE ARE THE STARS - Book Review
Language is the most important tool in maintaining culture. I wish I knew more but I am lazy and my brain has gotten older. I knew so much more when I was in grade school because of elders and there were not immersion schools way back then (I so wish there had been). Life happens and you move away then there is no one to talk to, so I lost a lot. I understand the importance of Language to the culture of the Oceti Sakowin. Language is interwoven into our creation stories, ceremonies, and our daily lives. Language is our Culture.
Seems like wherever colonizing missionaries go there is loss of land. Chief Pontiac in 1763 said “They came with a Bible and their religion. They stole our land and crushed our spirit, and now tell us we should be thankful.” Then Red Cloud one hundred years later said “They made us many promises more than I can remember. But they never kept but one. They promised to take our land and they took it.”
The people of the Oceti Sakowin Lakota Dakota and Nakota have a rich and complex language with three dialects and a male way of speaking and a female way of speaking. Missionaries like Riggs, Williamson, and Pond brothers manipulated the Dakota language to conform it to English with Christian influence, deciding just what to translate. They also used that alphabet for treaty making to take the rich lands of the Dakota, and continued debasement of the people. Then there was the Lakota Language Consortium started by Europeans, many people used the Consortium to learn Lakota. But after so many issues with and within the Consortium, it is no longer available.
Miss Hernandez’s book, WE ARE the STARS to me was fascinating. It explained so much for me. I had some questions answered about Charles Eastman, filled a few gaps about the 1862 War in Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota). I read so much history it was refreshing reading WE ARE the STARS about the language of the Oceti Sakowin and it gave me a better understanding of the history I am reading.
Thankfully there are many resources for language study. The reservation schools and colleges, cultural centers even Facebook are available to learn the Language of the Oceti Sakowin.
Prairie Edge also has some resource materials:
We are the Stars: Colonizing & Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition by Sarah Hernandez
https://prairieedge.com/all-products/we-are-the-stars-colonizing-and-decolonizing-the-oceti-sakowin-literary-tradition-book/?searchid=236503&search_query=we+are+the+stars
Reading and Writing the Lakota Language by Albert White Hat Sr.
https://prairieedge.com/all-products/books-music/reading-and-writing-the-lakota-language-book/?searchid=236460&search_query=reading+and+writing
Dakota Texts by Ella Deloria
https://prairieedge.com/all-products/books-music/dakota-texts-language-book/?searchid=236471&search_query=dakota+texts
Lakota Texts: Narratives of Lakota Life & Culture in the Twentieth Century by Regina Pustet
https://prairieedge.com/all-products/book-lakota-texts-narratives-of-lakota-life-and-culture-in-the-twentieth-century/?searchid=236484&search_query=Lakota+
Lakota Dictionary by Eugene Buechel & Paul Manhart
https://prairieedge.com/all-products/books-music/book-lakota-dictionary/?searchid=236491&search_query=Dictionary
A Dakota-English Dictionary by Stephen R. Riggs
https://prairieedge.com/all-products/books-music/book-a-dakota-english-dictionary/?searchid=236494&search_query=Dictionary