Revisiting the fight over the Lakota language as Trump targets "divisive narratives"

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

As the Trump administration targets the Smithsonian Institute for "divisive narratives" and "improper ideology," it got us thinking about how we preserve our history and everything that builds it, like language. So we're revisiting an episode from last year from the Lakota Nation in South Dakota over language — who preserves it, who has the right to the stories told in it, and who (literally) owns it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's A. Martinez. Even as the host of a news show, it can be hard to keep up with the headlines. That is why we make the Up First podcast. Every morning in under 15 minutes, we cover three major stories with context and analysis from reporters around the world. So you can catch up on what's going to while getting ready, making des making desa ysayuno, or going to work.
0:23.6	So listen to the Up First podcast from NPR.
0:25.9	What's good?
0:29.4	You are listening to Code Switch, the show about race and identity from NPR.
0:30.9	I'm Gene Demby.
0:38.7	Okay, so since President Trump took office again, his administration has gone after funding for places like schools and universities that teach what the administration calls divisive narratives and improper ideology.
0:45.4	Those are the terms the administration used to describe teachings that account for America's long
0:50.5	history of oppression of people of color. And now the administration is turning its sites to museums.
0:57.2	A presidential order from just a couple weeks ago focused specifically on the Smithsonian
1:01.5	institution.
1:02.8	And President Trump said that these ideas there needed to be rooted out.
1:07.7	That presidential order is likely to affect several museums, museums like the National
1:11.4	Museum of the American Indian, and the exhibitions within those museums that are dedicated to
1:15.7	that telling of history that is basically reframing and reshaping the stories we tell
1:20.9	ourselves about ourselves as a nation. And that got me and the Code Switch team thinking about
1:26.3	how we preserve our history and everything that builds it, like language.
1:31.8	Last year, one of our producers, Christina Kala, told my co-host, B.A. Parker, about this debate that was happening among people in the Lakota Nation in South Dakota.
1:40.9	It was a debate over language.
1:43.6	Who preserves language? Who gets the own language
1:46.5	in a very literal sense here? And who has the right to tell stories in that language?
1:52.3	Christina's episode won a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media. So big shout out to
1:56.7	Christina and everybody on our team that worked on the episode. And I'm, I'm going to just back up,
	...

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