Marie Smith Jones (May 14, 1918January 21, 2008, 'a sound that calls people from afar'Elizabeth Kolbert, "Last Words", The New Yorker, June 6, 2005.) was an American woman who was the last surviving speaker of the Eyak language of Southcentral Alaska. She was born in Cordova, Alaska, was an honorary chief of the Eyak Nation and the last remaining full-blooded Eyak.
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."How Do You Learn a Dead Language?", Christine Cyr, Slate, Jan. 28, 2008 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.Obituary by The Economist, 7 February 2008 Jones suffered from alcoholism earlier in her life, but gave up drinking while in her early 50s; she remained a heavy smoker until her death."Last Alaska language speaker dies", BBC News, January 24, 2008. She died of natural causes on January 21, 2008, at age 89 at her home in Anchorage. NPR also released an obituary where they have a clip of her reciting an Eyak prayer.
See also Language death Linguistic rights
References
External links
Obituary by The Economist, 7 February 2008 Article on Marie Smith Jones from Anglicans Online