Marie Wilcox, who saved her tribal language, dies | Nation

Visalia, California (AP) — Marie Wilcox, a Native American woman in California who saved the dying language of the tribe, has died. She was 87 years old.

Wilcox, once the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, worked for over 20 years to create a dictionary of tribal-speaking languages ​​in the San Joaquin Valley, California, and taught his family. Currently, there are at least three fluent language speakers, including her daughter.

Wilcox died in a hospital in Visalia on September 25, after an aortic rupture. Her great hope is the language work she began to continue, her daughter Jennifer Malone, I told Fresnobby.

“Her dream for us was to keep it going,” Malone said Friday in Tulare County on the eve of her mother’s memorial service. “So no matter what, we do this and teach as many people as we want to learn.”

Wilcox’s Wukchumni dictionary is copyrighted, and her family is currently looking for its publisher, Malone said.

Wukchumni is one of many tribes under the large umbrella of the Yokuts, an indigenous people of central San Joaquin Valley. However, unlike other Yokuts approved by the federal government, Wukchumni does not have federal status and lacks resources for cultural protection.

Wilcox’s efforts to save indigenous languages ​​from extinction were boosted in 2014. The New York Times made a short documentary He shows his old computer at Woodlake’s home enthusiastically typing Wukchumni’s words and stories.

According to Malone, a lifetime resident of Tulare County grew up in the hills northeast of Visalia and became a language teacher after spending most of her life in the fruit packing yard of Exeter. Wilcox also enjoyed traditional Native American basket weaving.

She regularly taught Ukchumni language classes through the Owens Valley Career Development Center. Language classes will continue.

“Look, I’m not sure about my language, only a few who want to keep it alive,” Wilcox said in a 2014 New York Times documentary. “Sad …. It seems strange that I’m the last person, but I don’t know, but that’s just — maybe not the last one, I know No. It may continue. “

She survives with her two daughters and dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. According to Malone, one of the youngest already understands many Ukchumni languages.

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Marie Wilcox, who saved her tribal language, dies | Nation

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