Jessie Little Doe Baird

Jessie Little Doe Baird (also Jessie Little Doe Fermino,[1][2] born 18 November 1963)[3] is a linguist known for her efforts to revive the Wampanoag (Wôpanâak) language. She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.

Jessie Little Doe Baird
Born (1963-11-18) November 18, 1963
Wareham, Massachusetts, United States
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationLinguist
Known forRevitalization of Wôpanâak language
AwardsMacArthur Fellowship

She lives in Mashpee, Massachusetts.[4]

Life

In 1992 or 1993, Baird experienced many dreams that she believed to be visions of her ancestors meeting her and speaking in their language, which she did not understand at first. According to a prophecy of her Wampanoag community, a woman of their kind would leave her home to bring back their language and "the children of those who had had a hand in breaking the language cycle would help heal it."[5] In around the same year, Baird began teaching the Wôpanâak language at tribal sites in Mashpee and Aquinnah.[6][7]

Baird studied for a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology three years later, where she studied with linguist Dr. Kenneth L. Hale;[8][9] together they collaborated to create a language database based on official written records, government correspondences and religious texts, especially a 1663 Bible printed by Puritan minister John Eliot kept in the archives of MIT.[5][9] This led to the first +10,000-word dictionary of the Wôpanâak language, complied by Baird and Hale in 1996.[9]

Baird and her work on Wôpanâak language reconstruction and revival are the subject of a PBS documentary, We Still Live Here – Âs Nutayuneân, directed by Anne Makepeace.[10]

Baird also serves as the vice-chairwoman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council. [11]

In 2017, Jessie Little Doe Baird received an honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences from Yale University.[12]

References
  1. "Inspired By A Dream". MIT Spectrum. Spring 2001.
  2. "languagehat.com : MACARTHUR GRANT FOR WAMPANOAG REVIVAL". languagehat.com. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  3. Jessie Little Doe (official website): CV Archived 2013-08-10 at the Wayback Machine, Aquinnah MA, 2003.
  4. Jessie Little Doe Fermino (2000). An introduction to Wampanoag grammar (Master's thesis) (PDF) (Thesis). MIT.
  5. Shatwell, Justin (December 2012). "The Long-Dead Native Language Wopânâak is Revived". Yankee Magazine. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  6. Sukiennik, Greg (March 24, 2001). "Woman Brings Tribe's Dead Language to Life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  7. Alexander Stille (September 30, 2000). "Speak, Cultural Memory: A Dead-Language Debate". The New York Times.
  8. "Jessie Little Doe Baird". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
  9. Mifflin, Jeffrey (22 April 2008). "Saving a Language: A rare book in MIT's archives helps linguists revive a long-unused Native American language". Technology Review. No. May/June 2008. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  10. Anne Makepeace (Director) (17 November 2011). "We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân". PBS Independent Lens. Retrieved 14 November 2022. 56 min.
  11. "Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe ~ Tribal Council". Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Archived from the original on 2014-12-15. Retrieved 2014-12-24.
  12. "Jessie Little Doe Baird Receives Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences | Yale Group for the Study of Native America (YGSNA)". ygsna.sites.yale.edu. Retrieved 2017-06-09.
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