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ing new words and expressions every day.
• "Almost immediately her attitude about it has changed and she sort of accepts that it's something that people use other than her mom or her dad," Wilson said.
• Another parent, Stephanie Yellow Hammer, said she is constantly surprised by her son Karsen's growing vocabulary. The Fort Yates woman said the 3-year-old knows how to ask for things in Lakota without repeating someone else's words.
• Yellow Hammer, who does not know the language but grew up with her father speaking it, said keeping the language alive is paramount for the Lakota culture.
• "A lot of our culture is oral so without our language we would have no culture. No songs and prayers for ceremonies and powwows. No way to pass on stories, traditions, beliefs and values," she said.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture says milk production in July through September was up 6 percent from the same period last year.
• The USDA says milk production for the third quarter totaled 487 million pounds. That's down from 1 percent from the second quarter total of 494 million pounds.
• The average number of milk cows during the third quarter was 92,000. That's up 2,000 cows from last year and but down 1,000 from last quarter.
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• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Western South Dakota is recovering from winds that overturned semitrailers, downed power lines, fed fires and even left a trampoline hanging from a power pole in Box Elder.
• The National Weather Service reports that the highest recorded gust in the area Thursday was 81 mph in Rapid City. Gusts of more than 70 mph were reported throughout western South Dakota, making it the windiest day of the year.
• The Rapid City Journal reports that Custer State Park's Needles Highway was closed because of falling trees. Rapid City Fire Department spokesman Brent Long tells the newspaper that tree limbs felled power lines, which in turn sparked some fires. The largest fire was about 100 acres.
• The weather service reports Friday that winds have returned to the 10 mph range.
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