KILI (90.1 FM), licensed to

Porcupine, South Dakota Porcupine (Lakota: ''pȟahíŋ siŋté''; "porcupine tail") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 925 at the 2020 census. The community most likely was named after Porcupine ...

, is a non-profit

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting to the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge,

Cheyenne River The Cheyenne River ( lkt, Wakpá Wašté; "Good River"), also written ''Chyone'', referring to the Cheyenne people who once lived there, is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 2 ...

, and

Rosebud Indian Reservation The Rosebud Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who are Sicangu, a band of Lakota people. The Lakota name ''Sicangu Oyate'' translates as t ...

s, part of the

Great Sioux Nation The Great Sioux Nation is the traditional political structure of the Sioux in North America. The peoples who speak the Sioux language are considered to be members of the Oceti Sakowin (''Očhéthi Šakówiŋ'', pronounced ) or Seven Council Fire ...

. The station started broadcasting in 1983 as the first American Indian-owned radio station in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. 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 Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

, using a

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

in the Mount Rushmore State's second-largest city. It seeks to preserve Native American culture and instill pride in the peoples' unique heritage.

History

The station was founded in 1983 by members of the

American Indian Movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American 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 ...

, "the very first Indian-controlled, Indian-owned and Indian-run radio station in the U.S.," said activist

Russell Means Russell Charles Means (November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012) 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 Ind ...

in 2006. 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. As a non-profit endeavor, KILI is supported by public grants and tribal government funding. 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. On December 29, 2008; KILI announced on its website that the station will be powered by a

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

Programming

KILI broadcasts 22 hours daily in the

Lakota language Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. Lakota is mutually intelligible with the two dialects of the Dakota language, especially Western Dakota, and i ...

, as well as in English, from its studios on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Programs include: ''Morning Wakalyapi Show'', an all-Lakota-language show by Francis Thunder Hawk, ''News of the Lakota Nation'', live

American Indian music Indigenous music of North America, which includes American Indian music or Native American music, is the music that is used, created or performed by Indigenous peoples of North America, including Native Americans in the United States and Abori ...

performances in the evening, and frequent

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

s. 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 Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

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. KILI's schedule includes daily instruction in the Lakota language. The station also

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

s live on the internet and hosts a daily national call-in show on American Indian issues, entitled ''Native America Calling''.

References

External links

KILI official website
{{Authority control

ILI Ili, ILI, Illi may refer to: Abbreviations * Irish Life International, part of Irish Life and Permanent * Intuitive Logical Introvert, a personality type in socionics * Influenza-like illness * Iran Language Institute, a state-owned, non-profit ...

Lakota culture Native American radio 1983 establishments in South Dakota