Marie Wilcox, Who Saved Her Native Language from Extinction, Dies at 87

For galore years, Marie Wilcox was the guardian of the Wukchumni language, 1 of respective Indigenous languages that were erstwhile communal successful Central California but person either disappeared oregon astir disappeared. She was the lone idiosyncratic for a clip who could talk it fluently.

She started penning down words successful Wukchumni arsenic she remembered them successful the precocious 1990s, scrawling connected the backs of envelopes and slips of paper. Then she started typing them into an aged boxy computer. Soon she was getting up aboriginal to give her time to gathering words and moving into the night.

After 20 years of labor, of hunting and pecking connected her keyboard, Ms. Wilcox, who died astatine 87 connected Sept. 25, produced a dictionary, the archetypal known implicit compendium of Wukchumni.

“The dictionary was her full life,” Jennifer Malone, 1 of her daughters, said successful a telephone interview. “The connection was dying, and she brought it back.”

When her ample extended household held a enactment and watched the documentary together, they understood for the archetypal clip what she had been doing each those years, said Ms. Malone, who, with a fistful of others, helped her parent edit and format the dictionary. Until then, she said, they had not afloat appreciated her enactment oregon valued the transportation betwixt their mislaid connection and immoderate of their taste traditions.

Within abbreviated order, galore household members started learning Wukchumni. And different Native American tribes were inspired by her communicative to revitalize their ain disappearing languages.

Ms. Wilcox died astatine a infirmary successful Visalia, successful Central California. She had been attending a day enactment for her 4-year-old great-great grandson erstwhile she was stricken by a ruptured aorta arsenic she was getting successful a car to leave, Ms. Malone said.

After 1 of her aged relatives died astir 8 years ago, Ms. Wilcox became the lone idiosyncratic fluent successful Wukchumni, a dialect of Tule-Kaweah, which originated adjacent the Tule and Kaweah Rivers successful Central California.

“It seems weird that I americium the past one,” she told Mr. Vaughan-Lee, the filmmaker. “It’ll conscionable beryllium gone 1 of these days.”

But agelong earlier she became the lone fluent speaker, Ms. Wilcox had go fixated connected creating a lasting grounds of Wukchumni. Her grandmother, who took attraction of her arsenic a child, had spoken it, and Ms. Wilcox had started retired creating her dictionary arsenic a tribute to the grandmother, Ms. Malone said. The dictionary was copyrighted successful 2019 but has yet to beryllium published; Ms. Wilcox besides recorded the words truthful that others would cognize the close pronunciation.

After the documentary came out, learning the connection became a corporate effort crossed 4 generations of Ms. Wilcox’s family. Her 4-year-old great-great grandson, Oliver Treglown, was being raised to talk it from birth. Interest besides picked up wrong the Visalia community, wherever Ms. Malone teaches the connection astatine the Owens Valley Career Development Center.

Marie Desma Wilcox was calved connected Nov. 24, 1933, connected a ranch successful Visalia, successful the San Joaquin Valley. Her father, Alex Wilcox, was a workplace hand. Her mother, Beatrice Arancis, had 7 children, of which Marie was the youngest. She often referred to herself arsenic “the extremity of the trail.”

Marie grew up with her grandparents successful a one-room location successful the Venice Hills mountains adjacent Sequoia National Park. After she finished the eighth grade, she went to enactment successful the fields arsenic a workplace manus herself, mostly picking fruit.

She had 4 daughters and 1 lad with Joe Garcia, and those 4 sisters joined 4 of the Malone brothers. In summation to her girl Jennifer Malone, Ms. Wilcox is survived by different daughter, Evelyn Malone; 10 grandchildren; 33 great-grandchildren; and 18 great-great grandchildren.

Among those who helped Ms. Wilcox with her dictionary, peculiarly with her computer, was Nicholas Luna, 27, an Apache whom Ms. Wilcox brought into her family. Mr. Luna said successful an interrogation that erstwhile the household viewed the documentary successful 2014, “it gave them a consciousness of purpose.”

“She was grooming us, and, boy, did she bid america well,” helium said. “She lit a occurrence nether maine and others to support connected speaking the connection and to support going astatine it. Now I imagination successful the Wukchumni language.”