AISRI Educational Projects

ASSINIBOINE LANGUAGE PROGRAM

Nakota is the heritage language of the Assiniboines, close relations of the Sioux (Dakota and Lakota). One of the most numerous peoples of the northwestern plains, the Assinboines today live on reservations and reserves in Montana and Saskatchewan. AISRI’s Assiniboine Language Project began with a survey of Assiniboine speech communities (Parks and DeMallie 1992), and subsequently focused on Fort Belknap Reservation in the U.S. and Carry The Kettle Reserve in Canada. The project has three main components:

• Documentation of Assinboine oral tradition by recording traditional narratives and personal reminiscences from the last generation of fluent speakers.
• Compilation of a reference dictionary of Assiniboine based on lexical elicitation and texts.
• Development of pedagogical materials for teaching Assiniboine in Fort Belknap College.