Today, we're thrilled to speak with Wookiye Win. Wookiye Win, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, is an artist and educator. She teaches the Dakota language for the Dakota Language Nest Preschool program at the Institute of Child Development on the University of Minnesota campus. She's also the illustrator of Dakota language children's books.

Wookiye comes from an artistic family and has always been creating art. But she never thought of herself as an artist. But when the COVID pandemic hit, she started looking for something to do at home and turned to watercolors. 

Not only did she find a theme for her art in nature but also found the pigments for her watercolors. The idea of making her own paints started when she collected pipestone dust left from her father's pipestone making. Since then, she has expanded her homemade palette to include marigold, red ochre, yellow ochre, nettle, among others.

It's her passion to revitalize the Dakota language. She makes an effort to speak it at home and work and to always learn more. Together with her husband, also a language revitalizer, Wookiye Win shares five kids and a home in St. Paul.

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Hosts / Producers: Leah Lemm, Cole Premo 

Editor: Britt Aamodt 

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger 

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood