Language Keepers

Two hundred years ago, as many as ninety languages and three hundred dialects were spoken in California. Today, with only half of these languages remaining, Indigenous speakers across the state are undertaking ambitious revitalization projects.

At eighty-five, Marie Wilcox is the only fluent speaker of Wukchumni. Having spent twenty years compiling a Wukchumni dictionary, she and her family are now embarking on a language revitalization project across four generations.

The Klamath River is the ancestral home of the Karuk people. Phil Albers, Julian Lang, and Maymi Preston-Donahue are learning to speak Karuk in order to keep the people connected to their language and the river.

Julie Girado Turner is the daughter of one of two remaining fluent speakers of Kawaiisu. For sixteen years, she has been documenting the language and stories still alive within the memories of her father and aunt.

Loren Bommelyn is the sole fluent speaker of Tolowa Dee-ni’, a language of California’s Pacific coast. Faced with generations of trauma, he is teaching the language and traditions to his children and grandchildren.

Watch all of the videos featured in the Wukchumni, Karuk, Kawaiisu, and Tolowa Dee-ni’ stories.