Last fluent Wichita speaker preserves language

Education

Monday, March 2, 2009

Doris Jean Lamar McLemore can't believe she is the last fluent speaker of the Wichita language.

"I never expected to be the last speaker," McLemore, 82, told The Wichita Eagle. "I never ever imagined it."

McLemore learned the language from her grandparents. But she didn't pass it on to her children.

She now spends her days recording words and phrases in the language in hopes of keeping it alive. "I don't know that anyone will ever speak it again," said Gary McAdams, the former president of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes of Oklahoma.

Get the Story:
Her task: To save a language (The Wichita Eagle 3/2)

Related Stories:
Oklahoma woman is last fluent speaker of Wichita (11/26)

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