Frequency | 90.1 MHz |
---|---|
Programming | |
Language(s) | Lakota, English |
Format | Community Radio |
Affiliations | Native Voice One [1] |
Ownership | |
Owner | Lakota Communications, Inc. |
History | |
First air date | 1983 |
Call sign meaning | "Cool" in the Lakota language |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 36443 |
Class | C1 |
ERP | 100,000 watts |
HAAT | 155 m (509 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 43°10′48″N102°19′25″W / 43.18000°N 102.32361°W |
Translator(s) | 88.7 K204FB (Rapid City) |
Links | |
Webcast | 32 kbit/s (live) |
KILI (90.1 FM), licensed to Porcupine, South Dakota, is a non-profit radio station broadcasting to the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Rosebud Indian Reservations, part of the Great Sioux Nation. [2] [3] The station started broadcasting in 1983 as the first American Indian-owned radio station in the United States. [4]
Owned and operated by Lakota Communications, KILI serves 30,000 people on the three reservations, along with the large American Indian urban community in Rapid City, using a translator in the Mount Rushmore State's second-largest city. [2] It seeks to preserve Native American culture and instill pride in the peoples' unique heritage.
Call sign | Frequency | City of license | ERP (W) | Class | FCC info |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
K204FB | 88.7 MHz FM | Rapid City, South Dakota | 34 | D | FMQ |
The station was founded in 1983 by members of the American Indian Movement, "the very first Indian-controlled, Indian-owned and Indian-run radio station in the U.S.," said activist Russell Means in 2006. [4] [5]
In mid-2006, the station was off the air for several weeks when its transmitter was hit by lightning on April 15, sustaining more than $200,000 in damage. [2]
As a non-profit endeavor, KILI is supported by public grants and tribal government funding. [6] It is governed by a board of directors composed of community leaders, such as Nellie Two Bulls. Known as "Grandma Nellie", she was active at the local and national level as a strong proponent of the Lakota culture, beloved as a storyteller and singer prior to her death on February 18, 2007 at age 81. [7]
On December 29, 2008; KILI announced on its website that the station will be powered by a wind turbine.
KILI broadcasts 22 hours daily in the Lakota language, as well as in English, from its studios on the Pine Ridge Reservation. [3] Programs include: Morning Wakalyapi Show, an all-Lakota-language show by Francis Thunder Hawk, News of the Lakota Nation, live American Indian music performances in the evening, and frequent public service announcements. [8]
One of its popular programs is the Blues Disc Jockey, hosted by Bryant High Horse on Sunday mornings. A Rapid City middle school teacher and guidance counselor during the week, he mixes blues tunes with humor on the air. High Horse, whose Lakota name is "Oyate Nawicajin" (meaning "Stand for his People"), is one of a group striving to preserve the Lakota language so that Lakota youth may speak and write their native language fluently. [9] KILI's schedule includes daily instruction in the Lakota language.
The station also simulcasts live on the internet and hosts a daily national call-in show on American Indian issues, entitled Native America Calling.
The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western Dakota (Wičhíyena). Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
Porcupine is a census-designated place (CDP) in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 925 at the 2020 census.
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against American Indians. AIM soon widened its focus from urban issues to many Indigenous Tribal issues that American Indian groups have faced due to settler colonialism in the Americas. These issues have included treaty rights, high rates of unemployment, the lack of American Indian subjects in education, and the preservation of Indigenous cultures.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located in the U.S. state of South Dakota, with a small portion of it extending into Nebraska. Originally included within the territory of the Great Sioux Reservation, Pine Ridge was created by the Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888. in the southwest corner of South Dakota on the Nebraska border. It consists of 3,468.85 sq mi (8,984 km2) of land area and is one of the largest reservations in the United States.
Russell Charles Means was an Oglala Lakota activist for the rights of Native Americans, libertarian political activist, actor, musician and writer. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organization in 1968 and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media coverage.
The Ghost Dance War was the military reaction of the United States government against the spread of the Ghost Dance movement on Lakota Sioux reservations in 1890 and 1891. The U.S. Army designation for this conflict was Pine Ridge Campaign. White settlers called it the Messiah War. Lakota Sioux reservations were occupied by the U.S. Army, causing fear, confusion, and resistance among the Lakota. It resulted in the Wounded Knee Massacre wherein the 7th Cavalry killed over 250 Lakota, primarily unarmed women, children, and elders, at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. The end of the Ghost Dance War is usually dated January 15, 1891, when Lakota Ghost-Dancing leader Kicking Bear decided to meet with US officials. However, the U.S. government continued to use the threat of violence to suppress the Ghost Dance at Lakota reservations Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock.
The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewey and Ziebach counties in South Dakota. In addition, many small parcels of off-reservation trust land are located in Stanley, Haakon, and Meade counties.
Moses J. Brings Plenty is an Oglala Lakota television, film, and stage actor, as well as a traditional drummer and singer. He is best known for his portrayal as "Mo" in the Paramount Network series Yellowstone.
Cecilia Fire Thunder is a nurse, community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2, 2004, she was the first woman elected as president of the Tribe. She served until being impeached on June 29, 2006, several months short of the two-year term. The major controversy was over her effort to build a Planned Parenthood clinic on the reservation after the South Dakota legislature banned most abortions throughout the state. The tribal council impeached her for proceeding without gaining their consensus.
The Wounded Knee Occupation, also known as Second Wounded Knee, began on February 27, 1973, when approximately 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, United States, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The protest followed the failure of an effort of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) to use impeachment to remove tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents. Additionally, protesters criticized the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations to hopefully arrive at fair and equitable treatment of Native Americans.
Alex White Plume is the former vice president and president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, located on South Dakota of the United States. He served as president from June 30, 2006 to November 2006 after Cecilia Fire Thunder was impeached.
Richard A. Wilson was elected chairman of the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he served from 1972–1976, following re-election in 1974.
The Oglala are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the United States.
JoAnn Tall is an environmental activist of the Oglala Lakota tribe who has worked to ensure the people have a chance to approve major projects for energy development. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1993 for her protests against uranium mining and plans for testing nuclear weapons in the Black Hills area, near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where she lives.
The Republic of Lakotah or Lakotah is a proposed independent republic in North America for the Lakota people. The idea of an independent nation of the Lakota was advanced in 2007 by activist Russell Means and the Lakota Freedom Movement. The suggested territory would be an enclave within the borders of the United States, covering thousands of square miles in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The proposed national borders are those laid out in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie between the United States government and the Lakota tribes. These lands are now occupied by Indian reservations and non-Native settlements.
The Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON) was an American paramilitary group established in 1972 by Oglala tribal chairman Dick Wilson under authority of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council. It operated on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during the early 1970's, and was disbanded after a new chairman was elected in 1976.
Edgar Donroy Bear Runner was a Native American activist. He is perhaps best known for attempting to peacefully negotiate the Jumping Bull ranch incident in 1975 via parleying with American Indian Movement activists.
The Wounded Knee 4-Directions Toby Eagle Bull Memorial Skatepark, also known as the Toby Eagle Bull Memorial Wounded Knee Four Directions Skate Park & the WK4-Directions TEB Memorial Skatepark, is a concrete skatepark located in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, United States, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Completed in 2011 by the local community with help from skateboarding organizations, the skatepark features a spectrum of skate obstacles and is dedicated to a young Lakota skater who died in a car accident: Toby Eagle Bull. The WK4D TOB Memorial Skatepark is located in the Youth Opportunity, or "YO," park, adjacent to the Oglala Lakota Nation powwow grounds, a picnic area, a playground, a basketball court as well as a baseball field.
John Yellow Bird Steele is an American politician. He was the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe for 14 years. Akim Reinhardt described him as "arguably the most successful Pine Ridge politician of the IRA era".