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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."To the best of our knowledge, she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive," her daughter Bernice Galloway told the Associated Press news agency.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.