The Lakota Language Consortium had promised to preserve the tribe’s native language and had spent years gathering recordings of elders, including Taken Alive’s grandmother, to create a new, standardized Lakota dictionary and textbooks.
But when Taken Alive, 35, asked for copies, he was shocked to learn that the consortium, run by a white man, had copyrighted the language materials, which were based on generations of Lakota tradition. The traditional knowledge gathered from the tribe was now being sold back to it in the form of textbooks.
“No matter how it was collected, where it was collected, when it was collected, our language belongs to us. Our stories belong to us. Our songs belong to us,” Taken Alive, who teaches Lakota to elementary school students, told the tribal council in April.
The legal fundraising page for the man in the article is here
Copyright is the most common form of intellectual property. They are literally using intellectual property law against the native speakers of the language.
But, whatever. Jerkwad making money off the situation is in the wrong. The entire concept of “rent seeking” by profiteering off the economy is a cancer on our society. And that’s why this guy went into business, to extract value from the situation, aka “rent seeking”. His cumulative effect on the whole situation is gonna be negative for everyone around him; where do you think “profit” comes from?
But I’ll agree to disagree. You are not gonna convince me, nor I you. More power to you (no, not sarcastically)