http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-08-28-voa50.cfm

Radio Station Provides Vital Link for People on Indian Reservation

By Greg Flakus
Porcupine, South Dakota
28 August 2007

There are many ethnic radio stations and broadcast programs in the United
States, but there is only one fully independent community radio station
serving the residents of a Native American Indian reservation. That is KILI
radio on the Pine Ridge reservation in southwestern South Dakota. It
operates from the top of a butte near the village of Porcupine and
broadcasts in both English and the native Lakota language. VOA's Greg
Flakus went there and filed this report on "the Voice of the Lakota
nation."

The Pine Ridge reservation is the eighth largest in the United States and
its close to 30,000 residents are spread out over nearly 9,000 square
kilometers of hilly, rocky land.

Some people here are involved in ranching, but this is one of the poorest
places in the United States, with unemployment at around 70 percent and an
average annual family income of just $3800.

For the Lakota people who live here and in the nearby Black Hills and Rapid
City, KILI radio is a beacon of hope as well as a way of keeping in touch
with the community at large.

"Hey, everybody,” says Derek Janis, a volunteer broadcaster on air at the
station, “I hope you are enjoying your day and things are good with you,
because everything is good up here at KILI Radio, 90.1 on the FM dial…"

KILI roughly translates to "cool" or "awesome" in English. The station
provides news about activities and events on the reservation, as well as
music -- ranging from country to hip hop, with lots of native traditional
singing as well.

Local college professors and students come in every week to discuss Lakota
myths and stories. The station also does live broadcasts of tribal council
meetings.

Melanie Janis is one of KILI radio's popular on-air personalities who
volunteers her time. "We are such a large reservation that we actually can
warn people of tornadoes or just little things going on, maybe someone is
having a rummage sale. For me, it is just a way of giving back," she says.

One of the longest-serving members of the KILI Radio staff is Business
Manager and Development Director Tom Casey. "The station has a way to
connect people, keep people connected, information-wise, issue-wise,
culture-wise, things that are happening in the community, things that are
going on. It just connects people," says Casey.

Part of each day's broadcast is done in the Lakota language, which is still
widely spoken by older people and is being taught to school children. The
language was in danger of dying because of government efforts to force
American Indians to speak English in decades past.

Tom Casey says using Lakota on the station sends a powerful cultural
message. "When the radio station first went on the air, February 25th,
1983, the first DJ [disc jockey] on the air spoke in both Lakota and
English and that was really powerful."

That power is not lost on younger volunteer broadcasters, like Melanie
Janis' 25-year-old son Derek. He is trying to learn more Lakota. "You
hardly see young guys my age talking fluently. Everybody has slang words
they mix in with the English, so it kind of gets broke up. I am working on
it. I am trying to learn myself."

KILI radio is supported by donations as well as grants from charitable
groups, and can be heard around the world on the Internet at
www.kiliradio.org