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ing the language and passing it on to future generations can be a turning point for the Sioux tribes.
• "It affects our culture, it affects our children. A lot of them don't know who they are or where they came from," Brewer said. "Through our language and our culture, they're going to know where they came from, and hopefully, that will help. Somehow, it will be intertwined."
• Brewer told the group that he intended to lead a Lakota Language Revitalization Initiative when he becomes tribal president that will focus on creating Lakota language immersion schools and identifying fluent Lakota speakers.
• A year ago, the Lakota language was declared to be in a state of emergency by state and national groups trying to save Native American languages and an action plan was suggested to the Oglala tribe. Brewer said the OST tribal council ignored the action plan and did nothing.
• "We're going step it up and take it before our council and find the funding for it," Brewer said.
• According to the nonprofit Lakota Language Consortium, the average age of a Lakota speaker is about 65 years old, and only about 14 percent of residents of the various Sioux reservations can speak their Native language. Without a Lakota language program in Oglala Sioux and other tribal schools, the language could become extinct someday.
• That's not too far of an exaggeration. Of the estimated 500 Native American tribes that existed in North America when Christopher Columbus landed in the New World, fewer than 50 Native languages have more than 1,000 speakers today.
• We applaud Brewer's commitment to create a Lakota language program in OST schools. Preserving the Sioux culture includes preserving the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota languages.
• ___
• The Daily Republic, Mitchell. Nov. 27, 2012
• Uniforms are too revealing
• The Daily Republic recently published a story that made us a bit uncomfortable and may have caused discomfort among some readers, too. The report was about spandex shorts, how those form-fitting bottoms may be too revealing and how they may actually keep some girls from playing interscholastic volleyball. Most high school programs in South Dakota have those shorts as a standard part of their game uniforms.
• Turns out, administrators in some South Dakota school districts -- including a few in our coverage area -- do not feel spandex is appropriate attire for teenage

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