By Carol Schmidt MSU NEWS SERVICE
BOZEMAN – A
project that retired Montana State University President Geoffrey Gamble
launched nearly 50 years ago may help preserve the language of a California
Indian tribe that has all but disappeared.
Gamble, a
linguist who served as MSU’s 11th president from 2000 to 2009, has just
published a dictionary of the language of the Wikchamni people of California’s
southern San Joaquin Valley, a tribe with a declining population that has only
one native speaker remaining.
It is a
50-year labor of love for Gamble, who first began on the project in 1969 while
he was working in a master’s program at Fresno State College. He worked on the
dictionary in spare moments throughout a career that evolved from anthropology
professor to college administrator to university president.
To learn more about the Wikchamni project go to wikchamnidictionary.library.fresnostate.edu. Visit montana.edu/news/19526 to read the complete story.
