Instructors
Alex Firethunder-Loeb
Alex Firethunder-Loeb is the Lakota Language & Culture Program Coordinator at the Lakota Waldorf in Kyle, SD, and is working on a Masters degree in Lakota Leadership and Management at Oglala Lakota College.Tamatane I’atala
Tamatane I'atala serves as Activities Coordinator for Red Cloud Indian School's Lakota Language Program. He earned his BA in Lakota Studies with an emphasis in Lakota Language, and graduated from the Lakota Language Education Action Program (LLEAP) 2011 from the University of South Dakota.Naomi Last Horse
Naomi Last Horse is a Lakota Language Instructor at Wounded Knee District School. She is trained in Lakota instruction through the Summer Language Institutes and Language Weekends organized by the Lakota Language Consortium.Stay tuned!
The instructor list for the 2018 LSI is currently in development. Stay tuned to see which of your favorite teachers will be here next year!Marek Kupiec
Marek Kupiec holds a Master’s degree in English with Translation from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. He works as Language Materials Editor for the Lakota Language Consortium and has been a linguistic associate of Jan Ullrich since 2014. He authored the Lakota Basic Reader “Táku Tókȟuŋpi he?” and participated in the creation of such materials as the Lakota Grammar Handbook, Lakota Vocab Builder and Lakota Children's Songs vol. 3.Allen Wilson
Allen Wilson is from Rosebud Reservation. He is a teacher of Lakota language, history and culture at Todd County Middle School, and before that, at St Joseph's Indian School. Together with Ben Black Bear Jr., regularly facilitates language meetings at Siŋté Glešká University. He grew up hearing Lakota around the rez and began studying more intently in 2012 after learning how close Lakota is to extinction. He has attended the Lakota Summer Institute since 2015.Junior Garcia
Junior Garcia is Lipan Apache and Sičháŋǧu Lakȟóta and teacher of the Lakota language and culture, as well as traditional song and ceremony. He has served as Education Director at the Lakota Language Consortium and Instructor at the Lakota Summer Institute since 2012. He has also taught several Lakota Language Weekends around the country. He served as Dean of Culture/Lakȟóta Language Instructor for the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He currently works as Lakota Language and Culture Instructor at Wounded Knee District School.
Wil Meya
Wil Meya is the co-Founder of the Lakota Summer Institute, and Executive Director and co-Founder of the Lakota Language Consortium. Since LSI’s beginnings in 2007 he has taught Phonology, Neologism, Teaching Lakota I & II, Drama, and numerous other courses in addition to being an administrator and coordinator for the Institute. He has a MA from the University of Arizona, and an ABD PhD from Indiana University, specializing in Lakota linguistics and language revitalization.
Kim Campbell
Kim Campbell joined the Lakota Language Consortium in 2009 to help create Lakȟóliya Wóglaka Po! Speak Lakota! Level 3 textbook, and began teaching second language teaching techniques at LSI. Her past career at the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard built up decades of experience creating lessons in Ojibwe, Thai, Celtic, Russian, Hebrew and Japanese, as well as medieval languages, and the LSI participants have become her Lakota language teachers.
Kevin Locke
Kevin Locke is Lakȟóta and Anishinaabe and a world famous visionary hoop dancer, storyteller and player of the Indigenous Northern Plains flute. He is a highly proficient speaker of the Lakota language, and integrates his language and culture into his teachings of global citizenship. He is on the Lakota Language Consortium's Board of Directors and has taught at LSI since 2007.