Dakoteyah Wogdaka is an interactive audio program that will assist you in learning some basic words and phrases of the Dakota language. It is brought to you as a project of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC) and our language immersion program for local children. We are located on the Ihanktonwan (Yankton) Sioux reservation along the Missouri River in the southeastern part of South Dakota.

The languages and cultures of native people have been suppressed since the start of European colonization. In our own communities, colonizers took children away from their families and put them into Catholic boarding schools where they were beaten for using their own language. White laws that forcibly outlawed the use of native languages meant the decline of fluency as well as a loss in cultural coherency and identity. Dakoteyah Wogdaka counteracts that suppression and means to preserve the language and lifeways of the Ihanktonwan tribe. Ihanktonwan means “endwellers” and defines our place of security in the Council Fires. The revival of our tongue makes a vital contribution towards cultural security for us now.
Special thanks to native speaker and language immersion teacher
LaVena Cook for lending her voice to this project. Technical assistance provided by Sandy Wade of NAWHERC and Mark Derby of the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. Site design by Sara Yant.

To use the lesson pages , just click on the word you want to hear. Depending on the computer you are using, an audio bar may pop up in the next window. After you hear the word or phrase, click  on the back button in the browser to return to the lessons page and continue.

Pronunciation Guide:
 

This guide will help you with the pronunciation of Dakota vowel sounds.

A has the sound of AH like the a in “father”
E has the sound of EH or EY like the e in “led” or the a in “fate”
I has the sound of EE like the i in “machine”
O has the sound of OH like the o in “rote”
U has the sound of OO like the oo in “moon”
 
 

Click on the following links for Dakota lessons:
 
 

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3