Students from Red Cloud High School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota won the Lakota Language Bowl held December 19. The competition tested the group’s knowledge and use of the language and covered topics such as the environment, ceremonial terms, biology and sentence structure.

The team attributed its success to their coach, Philomine Lakota, a Lakota language teacher at Red Cloud Indian School.

“We all want to learn; we are all interested in the culture and language,” said Savannah Jensen, a member of the team in a press release. She said Lakota encourages them to practice and to use the language outside the classroom. “We often greet each other in Lakota when walking through the hallways.”

Whether the teammates are talking about food, friends, or how they feel, “…we just talk; it’s really fun and we’ll continue to do it,” Jensen said.