30.3201, All: Remembering Michael Krauss

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-3201. Thu Aug 22 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.3201, All: Remembering Michael Krauss

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Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 04:01:23
From: Gary Holton [holton at hawaii.edu]
Subject: Remembering Michael Krauss

 
Dear Colleagues,

It is with a heavy heart that I bring news of the passing of Michael Krauss,
noted scholar of Alaskan languages and tireless advocate for the documentation
of the world’s small and endangered languages. Mike passed away just prior to
his 85th birthday on Sunday morning, August 11 at his home in Needham,
Massachusetts, following a bout with congestive heart failure. Mike and his
wife, Molly Lee, had relocated to Massachusetts from Alaska in 2016 in order
to be closer to his family. Others are probably better placed to write an
obituary; I offer here a few personal remembrances

Mike’s work was always deeply anchored in the scholarship of those who
preceded him. While enroute to Alaska in 1959 he made it a point to stop at
UCLA and visit Harry Hoijer, then the world’s preeminent Athabaskanist. No
stone was left unturned. After arriving in Alaska, at the height of the Cold
War, he forged relationships with Soviet scholars and even spent a sabbatical
year in the USSR gathering and later smuggling out copies of documentation of
Siberian languages. Throughout his career he strove to collect copies of
everything written in or about Alaska’s 20 Native languages (including related
languages spoken in Siberia). Over time this ambition led to the creation of
the Michael E. Krauss Alaska Native Language Archive, which was renamed in his
honor in 2013. 

Mike was not just a collector of documentation but also a creator, having
conducted first-hand field work with almost every Alaskan language. Shortly
after arriving in Alaska he began documenting Tanana, the language of the
Fairbanks region. That initial work led to the discovery of an additional
consonant series, requiring a significant revision of Hoijer’s reconstruction
of Proto-Athabaskan. Soon thereafter he began work with Eyak, an effort which
would occupy him for the remainder of his life. Krauss worked with all six
remaining fluent speakers of Eyak and created a vast body of documentation
which serves as an enduring record of the language since the passing of the
last native speaker in 2008. As it happens, Mike’s death came just at the end
of the Eyak Culture Camp, an annual event which provides an opportunity for
Eyak descendants to gather and reclaim their language. The documentary record
of the language created by Krauss and the last Eyak native speakers is crucial
to that effort, and in his last days Mike was on the phone daily with camp
participants advising on how to structure and present that documentation. No
doubt Mike will be especially missed by the Eyak community. 

Indeed, one of the many values that Mike taught us is the importance of
speakers and their descendants. Linguistics may be the scientific study of
language, but language is a quintessentially human domain. In championing
small languages Krauss simultaneously advocated on behalf of Indigenous
Peoples. In Alaska his efforts led to legislation which founded the Alaska
Native Language Center, a state-funded institution dedicated to the study and
promotion of Native languages in Alaska. Many of Alaska’s most prominent
linguists -- Edna Maclean, Katherine Peter, Eliza Jones, and others -- spent
their formative years at the Alaska Native Language Center, shaping the future
of Indigenous language policy and education in the state. Later, Krauss took
these arguments to the national and world stages, famously warning in his 1991
address to the Linguistic Society of America that “we must do some serious
rethinking of our priorities, lest linguistics go down in history as the only
science that presided obliviously over the disappearance of 90% of the very
field to which it is dedicated.” 

I would like to think that we have indeed rethought our priorities, paying
greater attention now to the documentation of endangered languages and to
engagement with the speakers of those languages and their communities. Mike
would probably disagree, and he is of course right that we still have some
ways to go before we can truly be said to have adjusted our priorities. But we
are no longer oblivious. Our field has changed dramatically over the last
three decades in response to what Krauss labeled the endangered languages
“crisis.” This change was the work of many people, but we owe Mike a great
debt for pushing us down a path which prioritizes work with Indigenous
language communities. For some, including myself, that push was what got us
started in the field. Perhaps we all need a little push from time to time to
keep us on track and remind us of our priorities. The world will be a little
more difficult to navigate now without Mike’s persistent guidance. 

A public memorial honoring Dr. Krauss' professional life and career will be
held in the Davis Concert Hall at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on
Sunday, September 22, from 4-6pm, with a potluck to follow immediately
afterward in the Great Hall. A memorial service for friends and family will be
held at the University Community Presbyterian Church on Monday, September 23,
from 12-1pm. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in memory of Dr. Krauss
to the Alaska Native Language Archive, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Contributions may be made via check or online at https://engage.alaska.edu/uaf
and reference “In memory of Dr. Michael Krauss.” In the event of questions,
please contact UAF Development at +1-907-474-2619.

Gary Holton
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable

Subject Language(s): Eyak (eya)

Language Family(ies): Na-Dene



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