Ron His Horse Is Thunder says he will learn the Lakota language during his tenure as chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, to fulfill a promise he made to himself and his constituents during the campaign.

"I believe in the language so much that if I don't speak the language in four years, I will not run again," His Horse Is Thunder said Thursday, a day after he was elected chairman of the tribe.

His Horse Is Thunder, 47, president of Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, out-polled Dave Archambault Sr. 1,236-789 in Wednesday's election. Incumbent tribal chairman Charles Murphy was not a candidate.

Avis Little Eagle was elected vice chairman over James T. McLaughlin. Geraldine Agard defeated incumbent Sharon Two Bears and Adele White for Tribal Council secretary.

His Horse Is Thunder has never before served as an elected member of the Standing Rock tribe, whose reservation straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. It has roughly 18,000 members, and about half of them live on the reservation, His Horse Is Thunder said.

Three out of four people living on the reservation are unemployed, he said.

"I've got two high priorities - one is economic development," His Horse Is Thunder said. "When you have 76 percent unemployment, you have to have a plan to bring jobs to the reservation.

"The other is reinforcing and reinstilling pride in our culture and our language," he said.

His Horse Is Thunder, a descendant of Chief Sitting Bull, said he knows "about 10 percent" of his native language.

He said about a quarter of tribal members are fluent speakers. There are three language dialects: the Lakota, the Nakota and the Dakota.

His Horse Is Thunder said he also would call for an amendment in the tribe's constitution that would allow only those who speak the language of their ancestors to run for tribal office.

"When 25 percent of the people speak their language, it gives us hope to bring it back," His Horse Is Thunder said. "You cannot understand the culture when the culture is embodied in the language."