1 of the last fluent Lakota speakers in Canada worries about the future of the language

Hartland Goodtrack remembers his grandma telling him how they fled the U.S. to the Canadian borderwith other familiesafter the Battle of the Little Big Horn, led by the great Lakota leader Sitting Bull.

Although Sitting Bull himself returned to the United States in 1881, 37 families remained in Canada and founded Wood Mountain. Today it is the only Lakota community in the country.

Goodtrack was born in 1938 at his grandparents' smallhome in the community.

His Lakota name is Eya Ta-Gi-La, which means to be stingy of your language.

Goodtrack's grandmother decided they were going to raise him to learn the Lakota ways.Lakota was his first language, and he didn't learn a word of English until he was six years old.

After his grandmotherpassed away when he was five, he was raised solely by his grandfather, who took him along tomeet farmers to sell fencepickets.

Goodtrack said the RCMP wanted to send himto residential school, buthis grandfather stood his ground and refused, so Goodtrackwas able to retain his language, unlike others his age. Now he is one of its last remaining fluent speakers in Canada.

Goodtrack worked in grain elevators when he grew up. Along the way he met his wife Evelyn, a Dakota woman from Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation. After 54 years of marriage, and raising three biological and one adopted daughters along witha son who sadly died when he was young they are now retired on Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation.

Goodtrackwas able to retainthe Lakota language for all these years, even after living in the modernized world, but he wishes he would have passed it on to his children.

"My biggest regret is I didn't teach my girls Lakota," said Goodtrack.

The Lakota language is considered critically endangered in Canada, meaning itis at risk of falling out of use because it has few surviving speakers.

Goodtrack was 17 when his grandfather died. After that there was only one person left he would talk to in Lakota, Jim Wounded Horse, but he died when Goodtrackwas 28 years old. Goodtrack said he rarelyspoke Lakota for some time after that.

Now, he has been trying to speak it as much as he can.

WATCH |Hartland Goodtrackhas hopes his daughters and grandchildren will carry on the Lakota language:

Hartland Goodtrack, 84, is one of the last fluent speakers of the Lakota language

2 years ago

Duration 3:19

Hartland Goodtrack grew up at Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation, the only Lakota community in Canada. He has hopes his daughters and grandchildren will carry on the Lakota language.

Luckily for Goodtrack,Lakota is mutually intelligible with the two dialects of the Dakota language and with Nakota, as all arelanguagesof the Sioux family. So when he runs into a Dakota or Nakota speaker, they can understand each other.

For instance, the word "friend" is "kola" in Lakota, "koda" in Dakota,and "kona" in Nakota.

Also, eachlanguage differs slightly depending on whether a women or man is talking, but only a fluent speaker would know the difference.

Goodtrack saidhefears his language not being revived in Canada. He fondly remembers a time long agowhen you would go any place on the reserve and everyone would be speaking Lakota.

"I hate to not leave it behind when I'm gone. Some of my grandchildren should learn it," said Goodtrack.

One thing Goodtrack and his family have done to help maintain the language is work with the File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council on an app that teaches Lakota words and phrases. They helped with the basics of the language, like introductions, phrases, numbers and colours.

Goodtrack said it wasfun for them to hear themselves speak on the app.

One of his daughters, Roberta Soo-Oyewaste, is taking online Dakota classes with the University of Minnesota. She said she is proud to be learning a language andhopes to learn enough to chat with her father, even though it is slightly different from the Lakota he speaks.

She said learning languagegives her strength and takes her back three or four generations, to the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Soo-Oyewaste wants her children to know the importance of her grandfather's history,and thatthey come from a warrior lineage.

She encourages her children to ask their grandfather to speak Lakota, both so he can retain his language and theycan learn from him.

"You want to give them exposure and for him to share his knowledge about the language,"said Soo-Oyewaste.

"Every language has a spirit and that's the first thing we learn, right? It's the spirit of the language and the sacredness of the language, and we have to embrace that."