The Lakota Language Consortium had promised to preserve the tribe’s native language and had spent years gathering recordings of elders, including Taken Alive’s grandmother, to create a new, standardized Lakota dictionary and textbooks.
But when Taken Alive, 35, asked for copies, he was shocked to learn that the consortium, run by a white man, had copyrighted the language materials, which were based on generations of Lakota tradition. The traditional knowledge gathered from the tribe was now being sold back to it in the form of textbooks.
“No matter how it was collected, where it was collected, when it was collected, our language belongs to us. Our stories belong to us. Our songs belong to us,” Taken Alive, who teaches Lakota to elementary school students, told the tribal council in April.
Those two men who’s race is irrelevant by the way, do all of the actual work of making a textbook. I think its ok that they expect that work to be treated as their own.
This is only a big deal because it reminds people of actual injustices natives suffered at the hands of white people
Maybe they should just write their own textbook.
Were the confederate generals’ race irrelevant? They’d have to be, wouldn’t they.
Irrelevant to what? Their race is relevant to some things and not others. The race of those two men is not relevant to this specific situation. If they did something wrong, it wouldn’t suddenly be right if they were a different race, and vice versa.
You seem extraordinarily sure that their race is irrelevant. Did the fact that their names are Wilhelm and Jan raise a dry smile then? No. Well, maybe it’s just me.
Yeah its just you. I like to judge people based on their actions instead of their race and name.