BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Papa Bear, Mama Bear and their cubs
have helped children curb junk-food addictions and organize messy rooms
for half a century. Now, from their tree house in idyllic Bear Country,
the beloved Berenstain Bears are helping revive an endangered American
Indian language.
Lakota for the "Compassionate Bear Family," the
animated series "Mathó Waúnsila Thiwáhe" is the first animated series
ever translated into an American Indian language and began airing this
week on public television in North Dakota and South Dakota. Twenty
episodes of the Berenstain Bears were dubbed into the ancient language
of the Sioux, whose tribal lands span both states, and will run weekly
through 2011.
Disney’s classic movie "Bambi" was dubbed in Arapaho
in the mid-1990s to help preserve that language and culture, but never
before has an animated series been translated to help children learn new
words and phrasings with each episode, said Wilhelm Meya, executive
director of Lakota Language Consortium.
Fewer than 6,000 of the
120,000 members of Sioux tribes, who often identify themselves as
Lakota, speak the language or its less common but closely related Dakota
dialects. The average age of a Lakota speaker is 60, he said.
"The
bears are doing their part to save a language," said Meya, who is
fluent in Lakota. "Kids love cartoons. This is a great way to reach them
to engage them in the language in a fun and yet educational way."
About
500 languages existed in North America around the time Christopher
Columbus came ashore, but only about one-fifth are still spoken, Meya
said, estimating that fewer than 20 may survive. He said a language
needs 100,000 speakers to maintain viability over the long term.
Meya’s
nonprofit, along with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and public
broadcasting, produced the Lakota series and recorded it in Bismarck.
Lakota speakers from reservations in the Dakotas provided the voices,
and Berenstain Enterprises Inc. waived licensing fees for the project.
Jan
Berenstain, who introduced the first Berenstain Bear books with her
late husband, Stan, in 1962, said the Lakota project is important to
help children learn the endangered language.
"I think it’s
terrific," said Berenstain, who at 88 continues to write and illustrate
Berenstain Bears books from her studio in Pennsylvania. "We’re very
happy about it."
The humanlike honey-loving bear family and their
furry friends have taught millions of children worldwide gentle life
lessons, addressing subjects from bullying to the birds and the bees.
More
than 260 million copies of Berenstain Bear books have been released in
more than 20 languages, including Arabic and Chinese, said Mike
Berenstain, who writes and illustrates books with his mother. And they
were excited to add an American Indian language.
"We were delighted to cooperate in getting this done," he said.
Hundreds
of children from tribes throughout the Great Plains got a sneak peek at
the series last weekend at the United Tribes International Powwow in
Bismarck. Costumed Berenstain Bear characters made their rounds, posing
for pictures and shaking hands with wide-eyed children, many of them
resplendent in traditional Sioux dress.
Ten-year-old Chad Morsette Jr. gave the cartoon a thumbs-up.
"It’s
pretty good. Awesome, really," said Morsette, who lives in Twin Buttes
on North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Reservation. "I think a lot of kids are
going to like it."
His grandmother, Maryann Morsette, said she
speaks Lakota to her children and grandchildren as often as English. The
cartoon, she said, should help children absorb Lakota even more.
"I
think it will help make kids interested in the language," said
Morsette, 57. "I am full-blooded Sioux, and quite of bit of elders speak
the language but the kids don’t. It has to be spoken every day in the
home for it to take hold."
Voices for the characters came from
about a dozen Lakota-speaking residents on the Standing Rock, Cheyenne
River, Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in the Dakotas. There are
about two dozen Sioux tribes in North America, with reservations also in
Montana, Nebraska, Minnesota and Canada that "share many of the same
stories and songs, but they do have slightly different histories."
Kenny
Little Thunder and his wife, Bernadine, of the Cheyenne River Sioux
Reservation in South Dakota, provided voices for several of the bear
characters.
Kenny, 53, and Bernadine, 50, said they are among the
youngest fluent Lakota speakers on the reservation. They said most of
the children from their generation were punished for speaking their
native language at school.
"You couldn’t speak your language — you
were hit," said Kenny Little Thunder, a former Marine. "They beat the
language out of you."
Bernadine Little Thunder said there was a time when even Lakota children pressured others not to speak
the language.
"This
is important for our children," she said of learning the language. "I
think it will help to realize that it is cool to be Lakota."
Sunshine
Archambault-Carlow, education manager for the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe, said the lessons taught by the Berenstain Bears mirror Lakota
values. Archambault-Carlow, 32, has been learning Lakota for the past
four years and has immersed her three children because Lakota culture is
embodied in the language.
"I don’t see how they can exist without each other," she said.
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Online: http://lakotabears.com/about/index.html
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.