People

Bernadine Young Bird (Hidatsa) is a member of the Maxoadi Clan-Alkalai Lodge and an enrolled member of the Three-Affiliated Tribes on Ft. Berthold. Bernadine has raised her own children, 5 grandchildren, and has also fostered many other children throughout the years. Raising children has given Bernadine a tremendous joy, which she relays through her teaching. In the past, Bernadine was an elementary school teacher and Education Administrator, where she had oversight of all education programs Pre-school to Adult for the MHA Nation. Bernadine is currently the Language Coordinator/Faculty of the NHS College Native American Studies Department. She enjoys working with younger children and is very proud to see their pride and self-esteem increase as they learn Hidatsa.

Wayne Fox (Sáhniš) is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes. He currently teaches 5th grade at the White Shield School, in his home community. Wayne has been a lifelong educator and administrator of schools. During his time as a superintendent of schools on Standing Rock in 2008-2009, Wayne participated in the Lakota Summer Institute. He was deeply impressed  by the Lakota language revitalization efforts and, from that moment on, he wanted to bring an equivalent program to his community on Ft. Berthold. In 2012 he became Vice President of Academics at Fort Berthold Community College (now Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College) and saw an opportunity to invite The Language Conservancy to the college to present on a language revitalization initiative similar to the successful model happening on Standing Rock. Through his efforts, he was able to move the project forward and, eventually, launch the MHA Language Project together with the college and the MHA Tribal Education Department.

Valerian Three Irons (Mandan) is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes on Ft. Berthold. Since Jully 2011 he has been teaching Native American Studies at NHSC, including courses like Traditional Plains Culture, Native American Philisophical Thought, Contemporary Issues, and Mandan Language. He is also an instructor of Economic Development, Native American Marketing and Business Entrepreneurship.

Armik Mirzayan has been an Assistant Professor in Native Studies, Lakota Language, and the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of South Dakota since 2011. He earned his PhD in Linguistics from University of Colorado at Boulder in 2010. Armik has been studying Lakota and doing linguistic research on Siouan and Caddoan languages since 1999. His specific research within linguistics is focused on phonetics and sound patterns of languages, language change, and language revitalization. He completed his dissertation on Lakota Intonation and Prosody, a topic that he continues to study as a professor. Throughout his graduate career he was a research assistant in Language Documentation and Revitalization, working extensively in the field among several indigenous communities. He has recorded, digitized, and managed video/audio databases for Wichita, an endangered Indigenous American language of the Caddoan family. Currently, Armik teaches and coordinates the Lakota Language and Linguistics programs at USD. Between 2011 and 2013 he also served as the language and linguistics instructor for the Lakota Language Education Action Program, a federally funded program held jointly at USD and at Sitting Bull College. During the summertime Armik travels, chases storms, writes, and frequently teaches for the Lakota and MHA Summer Institutes. He has been teaching Arikara at the MHA Summer Institute since 2014.

Armik Mirzayan’s courses

MHA 110A – Arikara Phonology I

MHA 101A – Teaching Arikara Level I Methods A