Ms. Swenson talks about the effects of boarding school on her parents' language.
They were punished for speaking it and they didn’t want us to be punished.
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DL: Did you learn enough of the language so you could talk it?
LS: No. They would never speak it to us.
DL: I wonder why that was.
LS: Well, because she said they were punished in school. When they went to boarding school they were punished for speaking it and they didn’t want us to be punished. So that’s where our language stopped in our family.
Oral History- Interview |
Narrator LaVonne Swenson Interviewer Deborah Locke made in Morton, Lower Sioux Community, MN |
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Citation: Minnesota Historical Society. U.S. - Dakota War of 1862. They were punished for speaking it and they didn’t want us to be punished. April 24, 2024. http://www.usdakotawar.org/node/1131
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