Marie Smith Jones
Template:Short description Template:Infobox Native American leader Marie Smith Jones (May 14, 1918Template:Spaced ndashJanuary 21, 2008) was an American national who was the last surviving speaker of the Eyak language of Southcentral Alaska.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was born in Cordova, Alaska, was an honorary chief of the Eyak Nation and the last remaining full-blooded Eyak.<ref name="last">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref> In a 2005 interview, Smith Jones explained that her name in Eyak is Template:Lang (Template:IPA) which translates as 'a sound that calls people from afar'.<ref>Elizabeth Kolbert, "Last Words", The New Yorker, June 6, 2005.</ref>
Biography
Jones married a fisherman, William F. Smith, on May 5, 1948. Although she had nine children with Smith, they did not learn to speak Eyak due to the social stigma associated with it at the time. She moved to Anchorage in the 1970s. So that a record of the Eyak language would survive, she worked with linguist Michael E. Krauss, who compiled a dictionary and grammar of it.<ref>"How Do You Learn a Dead Language?", Christine Cyr, Slate, Jan. 28, 2008</ref> Her last older sibling died in the 1990s. Afterwards, Jones became politically active, and on two occasions she spoke at the United Nations on the issues of peace and indigenous languages. She was also active regarding environmental Indian issues, including clearcutting.<ref name=last/><ref>Obituary by The Economist, 7 February 2008</ref> Jones suffered from alcoholism earlier in her life, but gave up drinking while in her early 50s;<ref name=last/> she remained a heavy smoker until her death.<ref>"Last Alaska language speaker dies", BBC News, January 24, 2008.</ref> She died of natural causes on January 21, 2008, at age 89 at her home in Anchorage.<ref name=last/> NPR also released an obituary where they have a clip of her reciting an Eyak prayer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
References
External links
- 1918 births
- 2008 deaths
- 20th-century Alaska Native women
- 20th-century Alaska Native people
- Last known speakers of a Native American language
- People from Anchorage, Alaska
- People from Cordova, Alaska
- Women in Alaska
- 20th-century Native American people
- 20th-century American people
- 20th-century American women
- Eyak