Biloxi update

[Koontz John E]

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004, David Kaufman wrote:
> I would imagine documenting an "extinct" language has its own problems,
> since there are no longer native speakers left with which to confirm
> data.

The operative phrase is hapax legomenon.  Learn to love it.

> But I suppose it also has its advantages in that one doesn't have to go
> through the long and difficult process of establishing rapports with
> native speakers and become involved in tribal politics which I've heard
> sometimes happens in field work.

The extinction of the Biloxi langauge shouldn't be confused with the
extinction of the Biloxi people.  They're still around, if consolidated
with other groups.

http://www.tunica.org/
http://users.aol.com/donh523/navapage/tunica.htm
http://www.nsula.edu/folklife/database/cultures/NativeAmer/TunicaBiloxi.html
http://www.eda.gov/ImageCache/EDAPublic/documents/pdfdocs/20louisiana_2epdf/v1/20louisiana.pdf

That's just a sample of what you get by googling "biloxi tribe."  It
doesn't deal with any remants in Texas, etc.