Robert Patton, a Dual Credit student at Maȟpíya Lúta, is blending two worlds in a way you’ve probably never heard before. In his latest project, he’s teaching people how to play Tennessee Whiskey—but he’s doing it all in Lakota.
When Robert first started writing his sentences and script for the video, he ran into something that most guitar tutorials take for granted: there just aren’t Lakota words for all the guitar components. “Besides wikȟáŋ (string) and čhaŋkahotȟuŋ (guitar), there wasn’t really anything,” Robert explained. In a typical English tutorial, you’d hear something like, “pick the 5th string, 2nd fret, and slide to the 4th fret.” But Lakota doesn’t have a word for fret. So Robert improvised—he chose okó, meaning “the space in between,” because that’s exactly what frets are: spaces between those little metal slits.
While Robert hasn’t translated the lyrics of Tennessee Whiskey yet, he’s working on it on his own time. “That’s something I’m trying to do by myself,” he said. “It’s important for me to take that on and learn from it.”
So why Tennessee Whiskey? “It’s a song everyone knows,” Robert said. “And it’s super beginner-friendly. I thought it would be the perfect one to start with.”
But Robert’s project isn’t just about music—it’s about language revitalization. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help,” he encourages others. “There are people more than willing to help you achieve whatever it is you might want. This is also a step towards normalizing Lakota use in our daily lives. I highly encourage anyone to try to use Lakota in their music if they can.”
As for Robert’s future? He’s committed to continuing to use Lakota every day. “I want to apply it to situations or projects like this,” he said, “to keep normalizing the language being heard.”
Robert’s work is a reminder that music is universal—and that language, no matter how old, still has the power to make new connections.