Jessie "Little Doe" Baird, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts, is leading the effort to revive the long-dormant language of her people.

When she started out a dozen years ago, Baird didn't know anything about Wampanoag, which hadn't been spoken in 150 years. But after earning a master's degree in linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she has helped compile a 10,000-word dictionary, developed a standardized way to write the language and helped teach it to more than 100 tribal members.

Baird says the effort isn't over until the first tribal member is raised as a fluent speaker of Wampanoag, an Algonquin language. She hopes that will happen with her 10-month-old daughter.

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Found in translation (The Upper Cape Codder 5/26)