BROOKINGS – Weather in Lakota, translated, Aŋpétu Tókheča Lakȟótiya, is now provided on the website of South Dakota State University’s Mesonet, the state’s weather network. Lakota is one of three dialects of Oceti Sakowin, the state’s official indigenous language.
“Since the language of the O’ceti Sakowin became the state’s official indigenous language three years ago this month, the Mesonet has been looking for a way to make this happen,” said Nathan Edwards, SDSU Mesonet operations manager.
Users can toggle from English and Lakȟótiya via a link at the bottom of the Mesonet homepage at https://climate.sdstate.edu/ to see weather conditions in the Lakota language. Clicking on the words plays spoken Lakota and the English translation. Hovering over them shows written English.
SDSU’s Mesonet has a history of collaboration with tribes across the state to bring weather stations to underserved areas.
The work by the Mesonet’s Research Climatologist Ruben Behnke, with assistance from Red Cloud Indian School, was made possible by a grant from the Wokini Initiative – SDSU’s collaborative and holistic framework to support American Indian student success and Indigenous Nation-building.
The Mesonet is a statewide network of weather stations installed and operated by South Dakota State University. The Mesonet’s website – https://mesonet.sdstate.edu – serves up over 1 million page views annually. Mesonet weather reporting is used widely by the public, as well as by those in agriculture, forecasters, water management, emergency management and research.
