Jessie Little Doe Baird

Jessie Little Doe Baird
Born	(1963-11-18) November 18, 1963 (age 61) Wareham, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality	Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, American
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation	Linguist
Known for	Revitalization of Wôpanâak language
Awards	MacArthur Fellowship

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. She founded the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project.^[4]

She lives in Mashpee, Massachusetts.^[5]

Background

In 1992 or 1993, Baird experienced many dreams that she believes 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."^[6] In around the same year, Baird began teaching the Wôpanâak language at tribal sites in Mashpee and Aquinnah.^[7][8]

Education

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;^[9][10] 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.^[6][10] This led Baird and Hale in 1996 to begin compiling a Wôpanâak dictionary, with more than 10,000 words.^[10]

Advocacy and public service

Jessie Little Doe Baird founded the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project to revitalize the Wampanoag language. The project helped the Mashpee Wampanoag to create a language immersion school.^[4]

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.^[11]

Baird also serves as the vice-chairwoman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council. ^[12]

Awards and honors

In 2017, Jessie Little Doe Baird received an honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences from Yale University.^[13]

In 2020, Baird was named one of USA Today's "Women of the Century" for her work in reviving the Wampanoag language which had not been spoken in 150 years.^[14]

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. Hilleary, Cecily (8 May 2019). "Coining New Words Key to Revitalizing Native American Languages". Voice of America. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
5. Jessie Little Doe Fermino (2000). An introduction to Wampanoag grammar (Master's thesis) (PDF) (Thesis). MIT.
6. Shatwell, Justin (December 2012). "The Long-Dead Native Language Wopânâak is Revived". Yankee Magazine. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
7. Sukiennik, Greg (March 24, 2001). "Woman Brings Tribe's Dead Language to Life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
8. Alexander Stille (September 30, 2000). "Speak, Cultural Memory: A Dead-Language Debate". The New York Times.
9. "Jessie Little Doe Baird". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
10. 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.
11. Anne Makepeace (Director) (17 November 2011). "We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân". PBS Independent Lens. Retrieved 14 November 2022. 56 min.
12. "Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: Tribal Council". Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Archived from the original on 2014-12-15. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
13. "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.
14. "Julia Child, Ayanna Pressley and Gwen Ifill among influential women from Massachusetts". www.usatoday.com. 13 August 2020. Retrieved 2023-02-15.

External links

• Katherine Perry (Director) (2012-11-23). "*Special Feature* Wômpanâak: Resurrection of a Language". 95.9 WATD-FM. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. 11 min.
• "We Still Live Here – Âs Nutayuneân". Our Mother Tongues. Makepeace Productions. 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2022. Additional footage from the "We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân" documentary (2011).
• Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. Retrieved 14 November 2022.