MAALIYAH PAPILLION (VOICEOVER): Our tribal historian, Jeffery Darensbourg is amazing.
He's so many things, and he's been teaching me Ishakkoy, our native language, for the past two years.
He's also been helping me and the tribe reconnect with the language by using our dictionary, a recent language revitalization project that he's contributed to.
This work is really important because, at one point, Ishakkoy was considered a dormant language.
- --the language, you know, like, and even the little bit that I know.
But it gets you in touch with the minds of people, your ancestors, who can kind of still speak to you through those languages from-- - Yeah.
- --you know, a good distance.
- It's definitely been a huge influence on me, and it's felt like something I need to do, because I do want to teach my children how to speak their language.
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