Searching for Lost City On the trial of America's Native Languages
by Elizabeth Seay
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Description
First Prize Multicultural Non-Fiction, The Independent Publishers Book Awards Choctaw, Creek, Sioux, Cherokee, and Ponca are just a few of the Native American tribal languages that are quickly moving towards extinction, down from the nearly six hundred that once existed. Experts predict that the number could drop to twenty by the middle of the century. Before they disappear completely, journalist Elizabeth Seay set out to track down what is left of these languages in her native Oklahoma. Her show more deeply felt narrative opens a window onto the quirks and intricacies of each language she encountered--and allows a glimpse into the last days of a vanishing culture. Seay finds a "lost city": Ross Mountain, a secret community in the Ozark Mountains where 90 percent of the people, from young to old, speak a Cherokee dialect as their first language. She meets leaders in the Indian community, from Toby Hughes, who weaves spells, to Charles Chibitty, the last Comanche code talker, and his granddaughter Lacey, for whom being a Comanche seems to be a weekend hobby. The result of Seay's journey is less a study in linguistics than a lively history lesson in cultural migration, forced assimilation, and the meaning of language itself. show lessTags
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Author Information
1+ Work 30 Members
Elizabeth Seay is a writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Searching for Lost City On the trial of America's Native Languages
- Original publication date
- 2003
- First words
- Lost City is a real place, back in the foothills of hte Ozark Mountains.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)and we couldn't afford to neglect anything that might tell us what to do with our lives.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Anthropology, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 497.09766 — Language Other languages North American native languages
- LCC
- PM501 .O5 .S43 — Language and Literature Hyperborean, Native American, and artificial languages Hyperborean, Indian, and artificial languages Indian languages Languages of the United States
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 30
- Popularity
- 925,139
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
