Gay Story Hamilton, chair of the Council of Elders of the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, recently was named to the board of directors of the Endangered Language Fund at Yale University.
Hamilton is involved in her tribe’s effort at reviving its language. She is editor-in-chief of the Mohegan Press, which recently produced a grammar and a dictionary of the Mohegan language, based on historical material. She has worked extensively with nonprofit organizations, taught at Western Connecticut State University and held research internships at the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History.
The Endangered Language Fund (ELF) is a nonprofit organization affiliated with Yale’s department of linguistics. The ELF is devoted to the scientific study of endangered languages, the support of native efforts in maintaining those languages, and the dissemination-to both native communities and the scholarly world-of the fruits of these efforts. Through the generosity of its members and supporters, including the Mohegan tribe, the ELF provides support for such efforts as recording texts from the remaining speakers of disappearing languages, preparing dictionaries, literary projects (such as a children’s book in Tohono O’odham) and the creation of programming for radio (in Dakotah) and video (in Choctaw). Further information about the ELF is available on the Internet at www.ling.yale.edu/~elf
Hamilton replaces one of the ELF’s founding members, Melissa Fawcett, also of the Mohegan tribe. Fawcett was instrumental in focusing on the needs of the native community.
“We are sorry that Melissa Fawcett’s increased duties at the tribe do not allow her to continue to serve on our board, but we are pleased that we have been able to maintain the continuity of having a representative dedicated to the preservation of culture through language,” said Douglas Whalen, founder and president of ELF and senior scientist at the Haskins Laboratories for Speech Research.
