Marie Wilcox
{{Short description|Wukchumni speaker and teacher (1933–2021)}}
{{About other people|the Wukchumni speaker and teacher}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marie Wilcox
| image = Marie Wilcox Lifetime Achievement Award.jpeg
| caption = Wilcox in 2016
| birth_date = {{birth date|1933|11|24}}
| birth_place = Visalia, California
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|09|25|1933|11|24}}
| death_place = Visalia, California
| known_for = Being the last speaker of Wukchumni Yokuts
}}
Marie Desma Wilcox (November 24, 1933 – September 25, 2021){{cite web |first=Emmanuel |last=Vaughan-Lee |author-link=Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee |title=Marie's Dictionary |publisher=Global Oneness Project |url=https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/maries-dictionary |type=documentary video, 10 mins |date=September 19, 2014 |accessdate=October 9, 2021 |archive-date=October 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004113036/https://www.globalonenessproject.org/library/films/maries-dictionary |url-status=live }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003061982/who-speaks-wukchumni.html|title=Who Speaks Wukchumni?|last=Vaughan-Lee|first=Emmanuel|date=August 18, 2014|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 10, 2021|issn=0362-4331|type=op-ed video, 9 min, 18 sec|archive-date=October 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010001124/https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003061982/who-speaks-wukchumni.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Seelye |first1=Katharine Q |title=Marie Wilcox, 87, an Elder Who Created a Dictionary To Save a Dying Language |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/marie-wilcox-dead.html |access-date=October 7, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=October 7, 2021 |archive-date=October 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006233614/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/us/marie-wilcox-dead.html |url-status=live }} Also [https://news.yahoo.com/marie-wilcox-saved-her-native-141118259.html at Yahoo News] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010001136/https://news.yahoo.com/marie-wilcox-saved-her-native-141118259.html |date=October 10, 2021 }}, October 9, 2021. was a Native American who was the last native speaker of Wukchumni, a dialect of Tule-Kaweah, which is a Yokutsan indigenous language spoken by the Tule-Kaweah Yokuts of California.{{cite news |first=Carmen |last=Kohlruss |url=https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article254851952.html |title=Native elder saved her tribe's language. Her Tulare County family vows to 'keep it going' |newspaper=Fresno Bee |date=October 8, 2021 |access-date=October 10, 2021 |archive-date=October 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211013025106/https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article254851952.html |url-status=live }} She worked for more than 20 years on a dictionary of the language.{{cite news |url=https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-visalia-california-language-native-americans-9c22a3d062d65c1046c9425d47369361 |title=Marie Wilcox, who saved her tribe's language, dies |publisher=Associated Press |date=October 8, 2021 |access-date=October 10, 2021 |archive-date=October 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008205708/https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-visalia-california-language-native-americans-9c22a3d062d65c1046c9425d47369361 |url-status=live }}
Life
Wilcox was born on a ranch in Visalia, California, the youngest of seven children of Beatrice Arancis and Alex Wilcox, a farm hand. She was raised by her grandparents in a one-room house in the Venice Hills and after completing eighth grade, she also became a farm hand and a fruit packer. With Joe Garcia, she had four daughters and a son. She lived in Woodlake, California and died in a hospital in Visalia after her aorta ruptured when she was leaving a grandson's birthday party.
Wukchumni language
Wilcox's grandmother spoke Wukchumni; after her death, Wilcox began working on a dictionary of the language as a tribute, with computer and other assistance from Nicholas Luna, an Apache. She included sound recordings of each word in the dictionary, and after the appearance in 2014 of a documentary on her work in the New York Times op-ed section,{{cite web |first=Tom |last=Roston |url=https://www.salon.com/2018/04/20/keeping-native-american-languages-alive-in-maries-dictionary-wukchumni-lives-on/ |title=Keeping Native American languages alive: In 'Marie's Dictionary,' Wukchumni lives on |website=Salon |date=April 20, 2018 |access-date=October 9, 2021 |archive-date=October 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005053119/https://www.salon.com/2018/04/20/keeping-native-american-languages-alive-in-maries-dictionary-wukchumni-lives-on/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/380457/saving-wukchumni/|title=Saving Wukchumni|last=Heller|first=Chris|work=The Atlantic|date=September 22, 2014|access-date=October 10, 2021|type=with video by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, 9 min, 35 sec|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093508/http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/380457/saving-wukchumni/|url-status=live}} her family and other members of their tribe became interested in reviving the language. She and her daughter taught it; at her death Wilcox was teaching classes at the Owens Valley Career Development Center, which are to continue. The dictionary was copyrighted in 2019, but is unpublished. As of 2014, it was estimated that the Wukchumni tribe had fewer than 200 members. In the early 2010s, when a relative died, Wilcox became the last remaining fluent speaker; at her death, there were at least three, including one of her daughters.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Yokuts navbox}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, Marie}}
Category:20th-century Native American women
Category:20th-century Native American people
Category:American lexicographers
Category:Linguists from the United States
Category:American women non-fiction writers
Category:People from Visalia, California
Category:Last known speakers of a Native American language
Category:21st-century Native American women