#dakhota

[singingmyscreamsong]

my memes always flop so i’ve decided to embrace it and make memes that will combined have a target audience of only myself. today’s meme is for the beginning dakota language learners

[huha-maza]

At midnight I went outside into the dark to have a smoke and prepare myself for bedtime and it was pitch black out. I am in the southeast side of the black hills. As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light I looked up and saw the stars faintly through the cloud cover. For the past seven years I have been healing. It has been compound trauma, a short lifetime of pain, hurt, and suffering. I haven't necessarily done anything to earn what has happened to me. No glorious activity to deserve a disorder centered around post trauma. As I puffed away at my cheap tobacco and sage mix a vision crossed my mind. I wasn't having a spiritual visionary experience; but a dream in a matter of speaking. What has kept me moving along despite the urge to stop forever? I have the extraordinary privilege of being extremely stubborn and indignant at times. I have the awareness of my own life and the lives around me. I have been watching you all and contemplating the world as it unfolded around me, constantly discovering the nature of human life and ideology. There is a gift that I am most grateful for, and at times it has felt like my biggest burden in a world that wants to stamp out independence. I was born Dakota. While there are many who will question my ethnic makeup and my status as a recognizable indigenous person, or lack of govt issue ID, it hasn't mattered when encountering other truly Dakota people. Our way of life has permeated throughout my consciousness for as long as I can remember. Tonight I dreamed of a time and place where our people can come together united in what really binds us, our language and way of life. This is what our sovereignty rests upon. Sovereignty sits inside the chest of each and every one of us. It is the ability to control our own destinies and future. I am just a young man, but I intend on being an old one some day. I have to get started now. When it comes to the Dakota language, which is the basis and vehicle for all thought and manner of Dakota life ways, there are many crabs in the pot. Folks always talk about the bucket and perpetual grabbing of each crab pulling the others down on their way up, in an imagined rush to prevent their own demise. The water is no longer bubbling menacingly, it is rolling in a full boil. Each community of Dakota people, upon the reservation and in the cities, has seen it's fair share of elders and young alike pass far too soon back into the stars above us. We talk about what must be done, and many act, both to positive and adverse effects. Not everyone has the nation's best interest in mind, often they serve themselves and their own inflated ego. Arguments over writing forms, over word pronunciations or altogether entirely different concepts tend to create negative space where people distance themselves from one another. We all crawl back to our corners of the pot that still rolls on. Looking up into the void around our round spinning home, I saw a land base where each individual came from elsewhere to commit themselves fully to our independence through language and ideology. A place where Dakota language is the basis for all communication and living. The young and old must band together and unite through the wish to continue to be Dakota forever. We must create a sanctified space, a temple for our future, where english does not slow us down in our efforts to endure as people living according to the harmony set before us by the incomprehensible creator and creation that has cared for us since time immemorial. The Dakota language gasps in the university, in the public school systems, and flourishes only in the hearts and minds of those who have committed their lives fully to the continuation of our ancient and powerful way of life. There are many talented youth and venerable elders who have picked it up and kept it inside themselves and shared it with those around them to varying effect. I am just a young guy but I see that we must come together and live entirely within our own framework. We must create our own temple university, a monastery space where we can plant our language banner and gather those around us who wish to continue on as "The Friendly People of the Harmonious Way of Life" - D/N/Lakota. We are still children when it comes to speech and learning. Each individual who wishes to embrace their Dakota language sovereignty must grow for years before true comprehension is attained. It is a painful process growing up. We must strive to create a garden where we are nourished by the keepers of the way of life. We cannot allow governing bodies to rule over the language and keep it for one group over another, decide who gets funded and who doesn't. We must break away from dependence on tribal and grant funding yet accept the positive support of those who choose to embrace this future. We need to place our banner and stand where we can be Dakota. If you cannot commit to living according to the ways of the people, through kinship life ways, you simply cannot continue on.

[dakhota-iapi-okhodakichiye-blog]

Susbéčha kiŋ čhaŋȟdóǧu íhduzeze. The dragonfly is clinging onto the reed stalk.

Ištá tháŋkthaŋka yukhé, úŋkhaŋ apé tópa yukhé. It has large eyes, and then it has four insect wings.

Miní ičáhda anáwiŋ. Čhaphúŋka wičháyute. It sails around on the edge of the water. It eats mosquitoes.

Susbéčha - Dragonfly. Sisíthuŋwaŋ Dakhóta say Suswéčha, while Thíŋthuŋwaŋ Lakȟóta say Thuswéčha.

Čhaŋȟdóǧu - The stalk of a plant, like a reed, or a weed.

íhduzeze - To cling onto something, to steady one’s self.

Ištá - Eyes. 

Tháŋktháŋka - “Plural large.” When it comes to inanimate objects, beings, and parts, the description term is reduplicated to show there is more than one. In this case, tháŋka, tháŋke (large, big, great) becomes tháŋkthaŋka.

Yukhé, yukháŋ - to possess a body part on one’s self.

Úŋkhaŋ - “and then.” A conjunction adding more.

Apé - The wing of an insect; the fin on a fish, the needle on an evergreen tree.

Tópa - Four.

Miní - Water. Also Mní.

Ičáhda - alongside.

Anáwiŋ - to sail around, to fly about; also to go around talking about people with lies.

Čhaphúŋka - Mosquito. 

Wičháyute - Wičhá + Yúte = Single individual eating multiple individuals. Wičhá is added in the conjugation to signify multiple targets of the action.

[dakhota-iapi-okhodakichiye-blog]

Tasáka - Frozen

Disney’s Frozen movie poster in Dakhóta iápi

(courtesy of the First Scout)

www.dakhota.org

[dakhota-iapi-okhodakichiye-blog]

Thažúška Wičhášta - Ant Man

Marvel’s Ant Man poster in Dakhóta iápi

(courtesy of the First Scout)

www.dakhota.org

[dakhota-iapi-okhodakichiye-blog]

Wótapi kiŋ tuktéd uŋyúhapta he? - Where we gonna have the feast at?; or Tókhiya waúŋtapta he? - Where we gonna eat?

Wótapi - a feast or a meal; it is literally “them eating.”

Tuktéd / Tókhiya - where

Uŋyúhapta - Uŋyúhapi + kta; Yuhé is to have something, uŋyúhapi is we have something, kta or kte is future tense. This is a way to say things in fast speech when plural. Uŋyúhapte is a statement where uŋyúhapta is being asked.

Waúŋtapte/a - We will eat.

he? - This is how we denote a question. In Dakhóta iápi we do not rise the tone at the end of our sentences to show we are inquisitive. Our sentences rise at the beginning and fall down in emphasis as we end the sentence. Even our songs are this way. Our western relatives on the prairie, men typically end their questions with hwo, this is said to have come from he + wo, wo being the masculine command ending.

Khaŋǧí / Uŋčíšičadaŋ - a Crow. Specifically the crow, as the Raven is called Khaŋǧí Tháŋka (big crow.) 

Uŋčíšičadaŋ = Uŋčíši + ča + daŋ; “the little one like a mother in law.” This was generally regarded as funny.

www.dakhota.org