Anpetu Waste!
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Noella Eagle
and I am the President of the Dakota Iapi Teukindapi
Consortium. My colleague Mrs. Elaine Hall-Pratt is
Vice-President and we have been blessed by the Creator to
assist in the creation of this consortium and to help build
our communities in regaining our sacred language. The years
of western colonization has left a devastating impact of
our languages and many communities are faced with the
critical state of language extinction.
I believe that we have the power of influence and
conventional tools that can regain our sacred languages. I
am very influenced by quotes and I would like to share with
you one that demonstrates the vision of this organization.
“A great nation cannot be conquered by outside forces, but
can only be diminished from within.” I firmly believe that
we must take ownership of our languages and network with
each other to save what is sacred.
Over 30 years of research done on language revitalization
within our education systems proves that children taught in
their first language excel academically as their
non-indigenous peers. We must continue to decolonize our
community members and education systems to value the worth
of our languages as they are the foundation of our great
nations. We cannot stand and introduce our nations which
are represented by our languages if we have lost the
essence of who we are as a people.
We look forward to working with you in a vital process of
our existence.
Pidamaye!
Noella Eagle,
President