Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Editor and Book Reviews Editor: John Edwards (St Francis Xavier University, Canada)
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Volume: 23 Number: 3 Page: 195–213
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The Rise and Fall of a Dakota Immersion Pre-school
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Bill Johnston
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This article narrates an attempt to establish a Dakota-language immersion pre-school on an Indian reservation in Minnesota. I begin by outlining the historical experience of the Dakota, emphasising characteristic
features such as the geographic dispersal of the Dakota after 1862, the contested role of religion in Dakota life, and the impact of gaming. Next, I recount the creation of a Dakota-language pre-school
at Peżihutazizi (Upper Sioux Community) in south-western Minnesota, as part of efforts to revive the Dakota language, and I tell the story of its first six months. I contrast the educational success
of the programme, in which the children showed growing mastery of the language, with the political crises that dogged it from the beginning. I then describe the final crisis that led to the resignation
of the director and to the programme's demise. Finally, I analyse the downfall of the programme in terms of the colonisation of the mind, specifically drawing on the work of Memmi (1965) in seeking to understand
the events described here.
© Multilingual Matters 2002
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