How An Octogenarian Preserved An Endangered Native American Language

It ’s easy to take version for deed over when Google can swap between Albanian and Zulu with the suction stop of a button , but even that tech has real world limitation . Marie Wilcoxis the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni , one of 130 different endangered aboriginal American languages in the United States that do n’t have any variety of digital — or analog — bequest .

Over the course of seven years in California ’s San Joaquin Valley , she worked with her girl and grandson to catalogue everything she bed about the language . First , she hand - scrawled memories on scraps of composition ; then , she hunt - and - pecked on an old keyboard to complete a dictionary and type out legend like “ How We Got Our Hands . ” Next , she tape the whole matter on sound for pronunciation — it ’s very specific!—and descendants .

This poor ten - instant doc on Vimeo is a fascinating look at her outgrowth , and how her personal quest created a living artefact for future generations . Definitely wonderful and well - worth a watch . [ Vimeo ]