Fred Nahwooksy (Comanche), a national leader in the movement to save endangered Native American languages died suddenly on Friday October 2nd in Johnson City, Tennessee. [link to obiturary]
As senior advisor to the associate director of museum programs for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, Fred worked tirelessly to find ways to incorporate language revitalization into the museum's work. He was instrumental in developing a widely traveled Code Talker exhibit and short film honoring the use of Native languages by soldiers from over two dozen Native American tribes during the world wars. Fred also conceived the theme, “From Code Talkers to Immersion” for the 2009 National Native Language Revitalization Summit, and his work continued to honor the legacy of Native warriors’ heroic use of their languages. He was scheduled to present the Code Talker exhibit and ongoing work of NMAI at this month’s National Indian Education Association Language Revitalization Forum in Milwaukee. Fred’s dedication to tribal communities and languages will be sorely missed throughout Indian Country.
