'Genius grant' a boost to linguist as she revives a native languageJessie Little Doe Baird will receive a $500,000 grant.
By Laura Collins-HughesJessie Little Doe Baird was overcome at the news that her 17 years of linguistic work—resurrecting the language the Wampanoag people spoke and wrote until at least the mid-1800s—had landed her a MacArthur Fellows "genius grant" of $500,000. The 23 recipients of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants, including five others from New England, were announced this morning.
When the foundation notified Baird, 46, a Mashpee linguist and the program director of the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, two weeks ago of the fellowship, the honor brought her to tears. As far as she knows, her 6-year-old daughter is the only child since the 19th century raised from birth to speak Wampanoag (or, in that language, Wôpanâak).Comment: For more on the subject, see
Alutiiq Anthropologist Is MacArthur Genius and
The Making of Wounded Knee.
1 comment:
She is amazing! We are NOT dead people, we survived and are now LIVING!
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