Hoopa Valley Tribe elder Verdena Leona Chase Parker was raised speaking Na:tinixwe Mixine:whe’ (Na-teh-nah-hwah Meh-hah-neh-hweh), the language of the Hupa people since time immemorial. Her fluency was a tribute to brave women in her family, including a grandmother who threw an Indian boarding school agent over a gate when they tried to forcibly take Parker’s […]
language restoration
Posted inNews (NCJ)
Welcome Back Wailaki: An Extinct Native Language Rebounds
There is no hello in Wailaki. The traditional greeting, “en tchong, en tchong shun da” translates to “Good, good my friend.” The language, part of the Athabascan linguistic family and spoken originally by Native Americans in the Eel River Valley, has been considered extinct for close to 50 years. Now, thanks to the efforts of […]