Marie's Dictionary

Marie Wilcox, the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, now teaches the language at a local community centre

There’s no denying the importance of language in holding onto, in strengthening and in rediscovering culture.

And it’s no secret that many Indigenous languages are endangered. A UNESCO report released a few years ago said 88 Indigenous languages in Canada were critically close to becoming extinct and likely won’t exist in the next century.

That’s depressing news for many of us, and easily leads to some fear that with the loss of our languages we’ll also lose our culture.

There’s always hope, though. And one beacon is Marie Wilcox, from San Joaquin Valley in California.

Marie is in her 80s and is the last fluent speaker of the Wukchumni language. Marie heard and spoke the language when she was young, but spoke primarily English to her kids. When she tried to remember and speak Wukchumni again, it came easily.

She’s the subject of a short doc called Marie’s Dictionary, released last year, which takes a look at how she wrote her language down, finally. It took her over seven years to finish the dictionary.

“I was surprised she could remember all that,” her daughter said in the film. “She just started writing down her words on envelopes... She’d sit up night after night typing on the computer, and she was never a computer person.”

Not knowing almena or how to use a computer keyboard, she’d sit in front of the machine typing one letter at a time with her index finger.

“It just seems weird that I am the last one. I don’t know, it just, it’ll just be gone one of these days...I don’t know,” Marie said. “Or it might go on and on.”

And maybe it will go on and on. She now teaches Wukchumni at the Owens Valley Career Development Centre.

Watch Marie’s Dictionary below: