Video

Berenstain Bears to Speak in Lakota

Native News Network Staff in Entertainment. Discussion »

BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA - The Berenstain Bears have entertained generations of Americans on PBS and in storybooks for the last 40 years speaking in English. Beginning this Sunday, September 11 at 9 am, the Berenstain Bears will speak in Lakota on South Dakota Broadcasting and Prairie Public television in North Dakota.

Matĥó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe, or "The Compassionate Bear Family," is the Lakota language name for the Berenstain Bears, whom you have seen on PBS and in storybooks for the past four decades.

Preview screenings will be played at the 42nd Annual United Tribes Powwow in Bismarck during the powwow's Children's Day activities on today.

Preview September 11

A more extensive launch is a series of events for parents and teachers with Lakota language students around showings of the episodes in Standing Rock schools, throughout September.

Beginning September 11, two episodes per week of the Matĥó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe will broadcast on SDPB's Digital 3 channel and Prairie Public's Digital 4 channel every Sunday morning at 9 am through November. Local access stations KOLC and REZ IPTV in Eagle Butte will then broadcast the series to viewers on Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Reservations, respectively.

Other showings will be presented at two Rapid City, South Dakota events this fall: the Lakota-Dakota Language Summit, November 17-18, and the Lakota Nation Invitational in December.

A DVD of the Matĥó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe series will be released in November. The User's Guide booklet is being created with support from the First Nations Development Institute/Native Youth and Culture Fund, based in Longmont, Colorado. The User's Guide will have a more in-depth online supplement, for classroom use and advanced individual Lakota language study.

Other support for the project has come from the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission.

If you can't get SDPB, Prairie Public, KOLC or IPTV on your TV, LakotaBears.com will stream episodes and have the User's Guide online supplement available for download.

posted September 9, 2011 2:20 pm edt