Monday, March 2, 2020

12 PM – 1:30 PM

3340 Moore Hall

In recent decades, Native communities have been dedicating time, energy and resources to maintaining, reclaiming, and revitalizing their languages. Much of this work happens in educational contexts which have been found in and are the mechanisms for colonial assimilation policies that caused language loss. Native communities are finding innovative ways to use existing educational contexts to forward their language goals. This talk will examine how one rural reservation community, Standing Rock, engages in such anti-colonial practices so that the Indigenous language is strengthened in schools. The presentation demonstrates the ways in which Standing Rock wrangles with an entire educational system to ensure Lakota/Dakota language is carried on for future generations.

Tasha R. Hauff, PhD, (Mnikowozu Lakhota) is a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research, teaching, and outreach focus on Indigenous language education and tribal sovereignty. In addition to her research, she contributes to the urgent project of community language revitalization, primarily on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.