Land & Water/Dakota Oyate
03 / Ancestral Presence & Living Language
Dakota relationships with these lands reach across the international border drawn through their homelands.
Words of recognition
We honour the Dakota Oyate and their ancestral and continuing relationships with this land. We recognize Dakota communities’ leadership, languages and futures, and respect their own accounts of their histories and rights.
Understanding this relationship
Canada’s 2024 apology to Dakota and Lakota Nations recognized their longstanding presence and the harms of treating them as outsiders. It acknowledged their exclusion from the numbered treaty process.
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation’s language work provides a present day point of connection. Dakota history belongs alongside the work of families and speakers continuing their language today.
Language & Learning
Sioux Valley Dakota Nation names its language page Dakota Iapi. Learn pronunciation from community speakers and clearly identified resources. Dakota, Lakota and Nakota names and language forms should not be silently substituted for one another.
The Assembly’s statement is its own source material. It is not a translation of our business acknowledgement. Community resources offer further language learning.