In this final episode of Season 1, we discuss the memories around Christmas and the various customs that have been introduced to our Lakota people via churches. We also discuss how resilient and innovative our people were to carry traditional Lakota concepts into these practices. For example, the word, “Wóšpipi,” means berrypicking, however the Christmas custom of receiving treats and presents under a tree is also described by this word. Similarly, Santa Clause was assigned the Lakota name, “Wazíya,” who existed in old traditional Lakota tales prior to contact with Christian missionaries.

We’d like to extend our wishes for happy holidays to all and we look forward to delivering Season 2 of Wičháho Blihélya in 2024!

Speakers in this episode include: Wilber Witt (Oglála), Dave “Dawí” American Horse (Oglála), Theresa Mendoza (Oglála), Alvon Little Whiteman (Oglála), Imogene Roy (Oglála), Ben Black Bear Jr. (Sičháŋǧu), Robert Two Crow (Oglála), and Alex FireThunder (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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