Since 2007, hundreds of teachers and students from all over the United States and the world have participated in LSI.

Lakota Summer Institute has always been a welcoming place for people who are enthusiastic and anxious to learn and expand their knowledge of Lakota. Many teachers and students refer to LSI as a “boot camp” for Lakota language. Recently a student told our staff, “I’ve learned more in one week here than in 20 years of studying on my own – thank you!”

Reviews and feedback from the LSI training are always exceptional. It is a professional training experience that has consistently exceeded all expectations and surpasses all previous training events in terms of depth of content. Teachers leave LSI feeling empowered with new knowledge, techniques and tools. Well-trained LSI teachers have a direct impact on the amount of Lakota and Dakota language successfully taught in the classroom and on improved test scores.

The LSI experience is intensely moving and even life-changing, both on an academic and interpersonal level. Veteran participants re-connect with peers and friends from past institutes, and new friendships take hold in a vibrant spirit of camaraderie – bound together by the experience of learning and speaking a common language. A 2018 LSI North participant wrote to us “I feel our hearts are connected…that summer experience was HUGE!”

Here you can browse information from past summer institutes: