As Lakota people, we are all familiar with the sight of beautiful star quilts wrapped around those being honored or draped over a couch or used as curtains in front of windows. In this episode, we visit with various Lakota speakers about their understanding of the history and significance of the star on our quilts. Additionally, some speakers shared stories of receiving their first star quilt, and memories of their mothers quilting. Lastly, we discuss that many students today receive a star quilt at their graduation ceremonies and we wanted to congratulate all of the Classes of 2023 across Lakota country with a Graduation Honoring Song sung by Austin Last Horse.

Speakers in this episode include: Austin Last Horse (Oglála), Imogene Roy (Oglála), Clause Two Elk (Sičháŋǧu), Delmarie Dullknife-Bradfield (Oglála / Šahíyela), Alvon Little Whiteman (Oglála), Andrea Reddest (Oglála), Robert Two Crow (Oglála), and Alex FireThunder (Oglála). We also hear a prayer song sung by Robert Two Crow’s great-granddaughter, Elise Gutierrez (Oglála). 

Wičháho Blihélya means, “with energetic voices” in Lakota. This podcast is intended to serve three major purposes: language preservation via documentation of the Lakota language as it is spoken by Native speakers and elders, language revitalization via providing interesting and engaging content for language learners to listen to in low-anxiety environments and for teachers to use in classrooms, and finally language maintenance by providing Lakota speakers with a talk show to listen to in their first language. This podcast was made possible by Hóyeya and The Lakota Language Consortium.

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This podcast is a free resource to share the language. If you’d like to support our efforts in providing monetary gifts for the speakers on this podcast you can donate here - https://lakhota.org/donate/

Thanks to the LLC team that worked on this episode: 

Alex FireThunder, Robert Two Crow, Shania Black Bear-Searby, Jamie Marquez-Bratcher, Jan Ullrich, and Marek Kupiec.

A special wóphila to Shania Black Bear-Searby for our amazing podcast artwork.

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