Sioux Literature in Translation: A Planning Project

FAIN: RQ-279914-21

AIHEC (Alexandria, VA 22314-2015)
Jurgita Antoine (Project Director: December 2020 to January 2024)
John Phillips (Project Director: January 2024 to July 2024)

Planning and development of an edition and translation to English of Lakota and Dakota literature, including songs, stories, letters and epics, from the earliest known to modern times. (12 months)

AIHEC proposes to create a detailed plan for developing an anthology of Siouan literature in translation in the series of Native Literatures of the Americas published by the University of Nebraska Press. This would be the first work to present a comprehensive literary landscape in Lakota/Dakota languages from the earliest known to modern times. The project involves engagement of the language communities in identification of texts for translation and the presentation of their cultural context.

Associated Products

Wasiċun ahiyuwinġe s’e/Waziyata Oižanžan Wak̇an: Like the Northern Lights Dakota and Lakota Writings from the Past and Present (Book)
Title: Wasiċun ahiyuwinġe s’e/Waziyata Oižanžan Wak̇an: Like the Northern Lights Dakota and Lakota Writings from the Past and Present
Author: n/a
Editor: Jurgita Antoine
Abstract: This project intends to offer the sixth volume in the University of Nebraska Press series covering Native literatures of North America by geographical regions. Other volumes in the series have explored Algonkian (Northeast) literatures (Swann 2005), the Southwest (Kozak 2012), Native American myth, story, and song (Swann 2014), the Southeast (Haag 2016), the Southern Great Plains (Palmer 2018). The structure and scope of this volume are unique in the series, as our linguistic focus is limited to Lakota and Dakota languages which continue to be spoken in the Northern Plains region, from Canadian Plains in the north to Nebraska in the south and from northern Montana to Minnesota. In this volume, we are including works from the earliest known times to contemporary writings representing a wide variety of genres such as songs, creation stories, epics, and jokes. Thus, this volume is not only a comprehensive resource of literary works, but it also our search to define what Lakota/Dakota literature is. The volume materials are arranged in two parts, Woodlands Dakota and Plains Lakota. The structure of both parts is similar – they start with the origin stories which are followed by samples of the earliest known texts arranged in chronological order with works of contemporary storytellers and writers ending each section.
Year: 2023
Access Model: not discussed yet
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Type: Edited Volume
Type: Translation
ISBN: n/a
Translator: Almona Kills In Water
Translator: Karen Lone Hill
Translator: Clifford Canku
Translator: Louis Garcia
Translator: Joe Bendickson
Translator: Ben Black Bear, Jr.
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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