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UA, Google Creating Digital Maps to Help Preserve Cultural Heritage of Russian Community</h1><div class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:14px;color:rgb(87,87,87);font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:21px">
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<span class="" style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;display:block;color:rgb(119,119,119)">By Yara Askar, University Communications | January 29, 2014</span><span class="" style="margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;display:block;color:rgb(119,119,119)"><span style="color:rgb(87,87,87);font-size:17px;font-style:italic">UA anthropologist Benedict Colombi is leading a public-private project to help a Russian indigenous people preserve its language and cultural knowledge.</span><br>
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Indigenous communities from Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula are dealing with an issue of great concern – the possible impending loss of the Itelmen language, which, in the community of 4,000, is only spoken by roughly one dozen elders.</p>
<p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(87,87,87)">To ensure that younger generations of the Itelmen ethnic group retain their heritage, University of Arizona anthropologist <strong style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Benedict Colombi</strong> and<strong style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Tatiana Degai</strong>, an Itelmen student pursuing a doctorate in American Indian Studies at the UA, have been working with the community in partnership with Google Earth Outreach, a program supporting non-profit organizations raising awareness of global issues, to create interactive and engaging digital maps of locations that hold cultural and historic significance.</p>
<p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(87,87,87)">Access full article below: </p><p style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(87,87,87)">
<a href="http://uanews.org/story/ua-google-creating-digital-maps-to-help-preserve-cultural-heritage-of-russian-community">http://uanews.org/story/ua-google-creating-digital-maps-to-help-preserve-cultural-heritage-of-russian-community</a><br>
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