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She was very much aloneas the last speaker of Eyak

Michael KraussUniversity of Alaska Fairbanksprofessor

Ms Jones dedicated much of her life topreserving the Eyak language

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Last Updated: Thursday, 24 January 2008, 10:56 GMT

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Last Alaska language speaker dies

A woman believed to be the

last native speaker of the

Eyak language in the north-

western US state of Alaska

has died at the age of 89.

Marie Smith Jones was a

champion of indigenous rights

and conservation. She died at

her home in Anchorage.

She helped the University of

Alaska compile an Eyak dictionary, so that future generations

would have the chance to resurrect it.

Nearly 20 other native Alaskan languages are at risk of

disappearing.

Ms Jones is described by her family as a tiny chain smoking

woman who was fiercely independent, says the BBC's Peter

Bowes in Los Angeles.

"To the best of our knowledge, she was the last full-blooded

Eyak alive," her daughter Bernice Galloway told the AssociatedPress news agency.

"She was a woman who faced incredible adversity in her life

and overcame it. She was about as tenacious as you can get."

She believed passionately in preserving the Eyak language and

wanted a written record of it to be kept so for future

generations, our correspondent adds.

'Tragic mantle'

The Eyak ancestral homeland runs along almost 500km (300

miles) of the Gulf of Alaska.

With her husband, a white

Oregon fisherman, Ms Jones

had nine children, seven of

whom are still alive.

But none of them learned Eyak

because they grew up at a time when it was considered wrong

to speak anything but English, her daughter said.

According to Michael Krauss, a linguist and professor with

whom she worked, "she was very much alone as the last

speaker of Eyak" for the last 15 years.

"She understood as only someone in her unique position could,

what it meant to be the last of her kind," Mr Krauss said.

SEE ALSO

Bodies point to Alaska's past31 Dec 07 | Science/Nature

Alaska natives left out in the cold04 Jan 07 | Science/Nature

Inuit language finds home on net03 Nov 04 | Technology

Uncovering Alaska's past03 Jan 02 | From Our OwnCorrespondent

RELATED INTERNET LINKSAlaska Native Language Center

The BBC is not responsible for thecontent of external internet sites

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"It's the first, but probably not the last, at the rate things are

going, of the Alaska Native languages to go extinct. She

understood what was at stake and its significance, and bore

that tragic mantle with grace and dignity."

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