The Bde Maka Ska name restoration is, for Dakota people, part of a larger effort to reinvigorate the use of their language. Having known the devastating effects that language loss can have on communities and individuals, Dakota people understand well how important language is to creating a sense of community, a sense of connection to one another and to the places where we live.

The art project here reflects the enduring relationships to this place that are embodied in the Dakota language. The project also recognizes the significance of this site as the place where Dakota first became a written language.

“The land called Mnísota Makhóčhe is home to the Dakota people. The Dakota language reflects that relationship and it is evident in the names of different places throughout the present day state of Minnesota.  The land, language, and way of life are all connected for the Dakota people and they cannot exist without each other.

Prior to European contact Dakota language was spoken throughout the land. Dakota is traditionally an oral language so before contact the language was never written down. However after contact with European colonists, the Dakota with missionaries Gideon and Samuel Pond wrote down the language. 

After the systematic removal of Dakota people from Minnesota, the US government decided to institute an assimilation policy to “kill the Indian, save the man,” which was developed by Col. Richard Pratt. This policy took young children away from their families to strip them of everything that made them Dakota. This included their culture, history, spirituality, and language.  Many Dakota children were punished for speaking their own language. They were verbally, mentally, or physically abused for practicing their own traditions and speaking their language.

After boarding school many children went home and refused to pass their language on to the next generation of children. Then those children didn’t pass it on to their children. Slowly over the course of many decades the language started to become endangered because many fluent speakers did not pass on the language.

Today there are currently less than 5 first speakers of Dakota that were born and raised in Minnesota Dakota communities along with approximately 20 speakers from Dakota communities outside of the state. There are currently more second language learners than first speakers of Dakota.  

At this time, Dakota is rarely spoken in the home.  It isn’t spoken in the community, at businesses and the government level in tribal offices.  We do not currently have a land base where the Dakota language is spoken everyday even though we are in Dakota homeland.

– excerpt from Dakhóta Iápi Okhódakičhiye