Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed
    Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed
    Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed
    Ebook251 pages3 hours

    Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed

    By Janet Yoder

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The life and work of Upper Skagit tribal elder Vi Hilbert, who, more than anyone, revitalized her native language—Lushootseed—and shared it and the culture it expresses with the world.

    In 1978, Seattle writer Janet Yoder took a Lushootseed class at the University of Washington. She was expecting to learn a little about this Salish language, and while Yoder did begin her Lushootseed lessons, what followed was lifelong learning and lots of adventures with Skagit tribal elder Vi Hilbert.

    Drawn from thirty years of friendship and interviews, Where the Language Lives is a tribute to Vi Hilbert’s life, work, and her quest to preserve her native language. Vi carried her culture by the example of her life as she shared her beloved Lushootseed language through her teaching, speaking, storytelling, recording, and publishing. Without her diligent research and her transcription and translation of early recordings in Lushootseed, much of the language could have been lost to the world. Her historical preservation efforts were recognized with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, presented by First Lady Hillary Clinton. She was also named a Washington State Living Treasure in 1989. Vi tasked Yoder with this collaborative book as a way of bearing witness, sometimes referring to Yoder as her “chronicler” and showing appreciation for the essays written during her life.

    To celebrate the legacy of her dear friend and mentor, Yoder poured decades of Vi’s teachings and stories, along with her experience of knowing Vi, into these essays. Ultimately, Where the Language Lives is a tribute to the memory of a woman who profoundly impacted a culture, a history, and the longevity of a language.

    Vi’s commitment to preserving Lushootseed contributed greatly to the renaissance of interest in Lushootseed and the growth of tribal language programs across western Washington.

    These essays cover the cultural significance of canoes, baskets, blankets, the bone game, naming ceremonies, stories, and story places, as well as the ritual burning of Vi’s parents’ house in order to send it to them in the spirit world and how Vi came to commission the Healing Heart Symphony.

    One foreword note is written by Vi Hilbert’s granddaughter, Jill La Pointe, and the second by Vi’s great-granddaughter Sasha La Pointe. Sasha, who carries Vi’s traditional name, is the author of the forthcoming memoir Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk (Counterpoint Press).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGirl Friday Books
    Release dateMay 24, 2022
    ISBN9781954854512
    Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed
    Author

    Janet Yoder

    Seattle writer Janet Yoder’s work has been published in literary journals, including the Baltimore Review, Chautauqua, Jet Fuel Review, Apalachee Review, American Literary Review, and Passages North. Her work has been recognized with a Pushcart Prize nomination and a Hedgebrook residency. She lives with her husband on a floating home in Seattle, Washington.

    Related to Where the Language Lives

    Related ebooks

    Anthropology For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Behind the Scenes

      Sep 4, 2021

      Behind the Scenes
      6 min read

    • Article

      “They Are Our Treasure”

      Jun 14, 2023

      “They Are Our Treasure”
      9 min read

    • Article

      Books With The Most Impact

      Dec 4, 2021

      Books With The Most Impact
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

      Dec 7, 2020

      At the beginning of August, the United States Postal Service delivered a box of books I had shipped when I moved from Iowa City to Boston with only five books inside and thirty seven books missing. The post A Year in Reading: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma appea

      4 min read

    • Article

      Books With The Most Impact

      Mar 15, 2023

      Books With The Most Impact
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Julietta Singh

      Dec 21, 2021

      In the face of so many tangible enclosures produced through the pandemic, my reading life this year has been attuned to affective openings, to women writers making space for each other and for other possible worlds. The post A Year in Reading: Julie

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Willowherb Review

      Aug 15, 2020

      The Willowherb Review
      3 min read

    • Article

      Passage to Greenland

      Apr 18, 2021

      Passage to Greenland
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Martha Anne Toll

      Dec 23, 2020

      The drama! The agony! The misogyny! The biting social commentary! The pathos! The post A Year in Reading: Martha Anne Toll appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Now That It’s Come to This

      Jun 3, 2021

      Now That It’s Come to This
      13 min read

    • Article

      ‘Portraits Of What It Means To Be Alive Today’: How We Chose The 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist

      Sep 21, 2023

      Any conversation about what reflects the best of world literature necessarily becomes a referendum on what literature can and should do. As chair of judges for this year’s Booker prize, I think it’s safe to say the conversations between my fellow jud

      2 min read

    • Article

      Natural Highs From Our Natural World

      Jan 22, 2024

      One of the most obvious reasons we read at all is to gain insight into the point of view of someone other than ourselves. Reading outside of our own experience can only serve to broaden our horizons and our minds, and this week we have a couple of sc

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Crystal Hana Kim

      Dec 6, 2018

      It’s easy to feel defeated these days. It takes more effort and conscious positivity to focus on the future, on the historic firsts. We elected a record number of women to the House this year, including 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ilhan Oma

      3 min read

    • Article

      Native American Poetry Anthology Vibrates With Powerful Voices

      Sep 16, 2020

      U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo serves as lead editor of this new collection, which showcases a range of poems as vast as the continent.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Sharon Olds, America’s Brave Poet of the Body

      Mar 8, 2017

      Sharon Olds can still remember how furious editors became when she started submitting her poems, 40 years ago. “They came back often with very angry notes,” the 74-year-old poet says, sitting in her small, light-filled apartment overlooking NYU’s cam

      16 min read

    • Article

      New Titles

      Dec 12, 2018

      By George Keithley George Braziller, Inc. “The Donner Party is one of the three or four finest book-length American poems ever written.”—Poetry. “Out of the western migration of the 1840s…Keithley has made a lean, taut narrative poem that moves with

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Daring Escape From Slavery, And The Love Story Behind It

      Feb 13, 2023

      This year marks the 175th anniversary of the escape to freedom of William and Ellen Craft, a married couple enslaved in Georgia. Devoted to each other and determined to start a family only once free, the duo devised a jaw-dropping plan to disguise th

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Shobha Rao

      Dec 4, 2018

      My reading choices this year were far more focused than they have ever been—rage has a way of focusing you, as does getting the Grace Paley Teaching Fellowship at The New School. I spent most of the year reading in preparation for my course, “Traditi

      2 min read

    • Article

      She Who Remembers

      Apr 5, 2022

      She Who Remembers
      10 min read

    • Article

      Time Travel with Historical Fiction

      Sep 15, 2022

      September is always a busy time of year. Students head back to school, many heritage organizations reset after Labour Day, and there always seems to be a lot of activities to pack in before cooler weather arrives. I sifted through my “To Be Read” pil

      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Where the Language Lives

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Where the Language Lives - Janet Yoder

      bbook_preview_excerpt.html[Fv}+ h}A6$Y6,YVfhzV9 #쳟HS̓sH'y !MUu=7>J7S=U>Gpl\5ĩ:v|~ѻ܉9mU\4TmϪ[Beh~ѝ>o?ok1V1bݺ*gcx]:n?zgM0;Qqޏan|xC Wg\>6oci䛹0́ X)WމCmO0"UOT 1pk{3dɷ;N1On+w(_iN&_=~a:9I F+u6C%i&_G)OuS4w!šJ~xp[l~zA!M ʝ<ڸDZZS7҅UHE6%p)/Z e*vz8R(CCx1evf88$`#e}4Ч@^οEl) wL\}݆a "Nη>-C|`y() xuچF0@ѿۘw4VǷbKInq8nwi@. r|~¦BF(D&FwF-̑N cJj8RS=^KꁦE%K ],Tro E!2r8jq4 bwͬ/-{RB$,,erxK8knÐJ߂6W0Q`9_Es?e쮡tuҋꦝeNbif0Ν4U  {d;!EWBwЬYtC$EEfjyzc{u'u\VړAa#3fb !f`$rds B"4vPrt:\C{%R6Uhn !ۍiFg iSi^d3%p{L_@8bd'.NWNjPMC4%קXZ=]m"z@8啖}R=ŦwOT^t(‹ ;}>])g]lcRv\'q3* p4^ivVp򠱿\΃b/و[E IŪTmctlÄu>n!Ɋ .l4dSŸF5x I6Ͼ*͊5γɑ9#+pEvDY86ZS]􇑰ʌ&Ɩ4䌨Jr]cpqcǎetaT(xi`H, / )gs?f87Qo3f,qæD3ubv"/nOCg-Fy?Am qImCr \1ˬ2ޒ VG\ þ,ƩާU*Ί|:@WzHg7v$_%Y0K,mV/g4o=߷T:p/z.+|om (B)b}3Fbj*ss!eR薃t1.EgxV; ֏Z$*pӪBHȕ5Go9^q2CbK+Cw_>HITs7 P :v!ӂV>pPlce7x'UG^vv_ 8AidzDFtoWg,uU SNGDxݢDt 9evpS=a@Ͳ.8vCZh96$rLHWY ,_ .;v9ZhF]Zݛw}" T> ff3="^9PxX9TU[F:W/JO o ճuZ28ٹL|m2:uWs8PQ΂h0,ǜ+ Rx)abd;8 6WF Lss H= ژUsI߀mM{HUHܷ'Axs$^V/hA*]FB8js?#t (ŷrgO𪐲)KbP?xiP],:'LͿx@&u\RCoq42['߻:Z;= /vs,U'1S9 %ΫGr7,a>oo;?nc:3j'HQCW'^)iŚ4@a9E># 8iXi0&֦>JcF,ݰ ȳ;fʀR,8I3L%%?rCe9KhUPz[V96xuɹ aܙ/1Ho$.X3;ҷr|褞>Bs lZ[-! 9p,ht"pMzgJ8%f ~hk1j'cg}e6{ƋEq{~!Qeg\5}Sӹ~囬og"4Ճ52 l#UyM.)1|ڦ޷'HV̪r\C^D,vp"uH^Gj,k<ʌUxXؕ: bWGSaDn^)͕P>>!E\Jb_Q&~hf=D 7m F,%QB RkrKarΦ{SpvY.92)jY(iLFuͻ[ ] 1= zх:yVYiƪG5gVFjY^v.'edwVZm3Bou YA1,CrB'C=D~f }wXȣ@6䓺n³ xҳe%rnѭa~̝Ogf:P%ˏ :R,`|Fr4æbmS`Z;liqL+ϦG/7/ˢs9,^Z@ʦi-[R"eF1"Xs^pvm~vbK&l|m=$pPZg~yFq; B:oxs)0znRH~E$/Eu%ކTF͍rSjo]2Ntӷ;뼒g,P+'0{м>0V\8/S_yX˲Z_7>w~L.1L09\9mo9Vu$w?,3٤\A@Ua+Uf$co $'zc]A#R/- eW-n9a7t ?sUb=iYi>Y`&7շ z=5ӈ'l&؊Ƚ !Dfucg>!P1 R[]Չf;O^бj-kYqz{ % ISNOU~s9CV_So$&WWi6(7RJ%[sB,3,鱪7”Ul;Bʃly<mO.^MI_s26`IJs`BE ޅƕ|YB[ePT$ M³TMNqM5.cO&%`qs. TJqzOfŦ>بrQMm~[SC~X޵㛳4O.a[CfuN[+e,bL!X"!OgԹRlV]Q'@4H{\J($;}auvi]եrZViUvoy5wvِg'G((\ ?I{a$oSQ%ꈑ#Hbmv8QM0:6C>-"XvJj0[j#+F|i.2OӗL${8G=_םG`8_"[I~$+- n?
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1