How Archie Thompson Saved the Yurok Language (fwd link)

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*How Archie Thompson Saved the Yurok Language*
SJSU Students<http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/advanced/search?fq[0]=ts_field_full_name%3ASJSU%20Students>
August 16, 2013

In March of this year, the Yurok Tribe lost Archie Thompson, a widower who
raised eight children. Archie was the last living native speaker of the
Yurok language, but, thankfully, the language didn’t die with him. Today
Yurok is taught in public schools in the Klamath River region of Northern
California.

For the Yurok, language is the foundation of what connects the soul of
their culture to the environment in which they live. It is through their
language that they are able to give thanks to the land which they consider
sacred for all that it has offered them. Annelia Norris-Hillman, Yurok
Tribe member and Yurok Language instructor at Weitchpec Elementary says,
“We are created in this place for a reason. We are here to give thanks for
and to take care of everything that surrounds us. Language is really the
essence of our culture. Without it, we don’t really exist.”

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http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/08/16/how-archie-thompson-saved-yurok-language-150910
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