This is the third semester in the Lakota Language sequence. During this third semester we will be continuing with the language by working with Lakota sentences collected from native speakers. Most of the sentences are from speakers at Pine Ridge and Rosebud. The primary point of using the sentences is to enter into a conversation, first with the original speaker, then with each other. We will also be reading more about a story approach to the world.
Stories provide the original world of virtual reality.
Western society has developed remarkable scientific techniques for studying nature and society, i.e., the world that is. But our experience is much broader than this. Besides the world that is, we all have images of a world that shouldn't be and hopes for a world that could be. Lakota people have their own historical encounter with the world that shouldn t be and their own visions of a world that literature says could be. Reading and discussing The Educated Imagination together in class may help us to appreciate some of their experience and some of those visions.