Dakota Culture, Language and Seeking Justice

Learn about the Dakota people, language, culture, and history as well as the story of Dakota people from creation to present and thoughts on  the future of the Dakota people. Plymouth member, Jeff Hall, will briefly describe his role in Wakpada, a new apartment building in south Minneapolis that reflects the area’s Dakota history and culture.

Sisoka Duta is a Dakota Language Teaching Specialist at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton nation of South Dakota.  Sisoka was born on the Lake Traverse Reservation near the Minnesota / South Dakota border, but raised in St. Paul.  He attended the UofM and majored in American Studies and Dakota language.

Sisoka is the Chair of the Board of Makoce Ikikcupi, a land recovery non-profit that raises funds from colonial descendants (white people) and purchases land back for Dakota people to live their traditional lives.  Sisoka is also the Chair of the Board of Dakhota lapi Okhodakichiye, an organization that is protecting the Dakota language by developing language books, dictionaries and curriculum.  His latest project was developing a Dakota language dictionary phone app that was unveiled in February 2023.