🔊 Click any bold native word in the story panels to see its pronunciation and hear it spoken. The "Hear it" button uses your browser's speech synthesis (synthesized, not a native speaker). For recordings by native speakers, click "Dictionary" — it links to entries with real audio where available.
Setting the Scene
Wakíŋyaŋ has not visited his grandmother's tiyóšpaye — his extended family — for many years. Today he steps off the bus onto the flat Dakota prairie. The smell of sage and woodsmoke is the same as he remembered. He breathes it in and thinks: I want to speak like they speak here. His first challenge: how to say hello the right way.
1Arriving on the Prairie
Wakíŋyaŋ steps off the bus into dry prairie air. A tipi village stands in the distance. His grandmother taught him that greetings carry respect — you don't just say Háu