Growing up, Gertrude Smith (Yavapai-Apache) was shamed for trying to learn her language. Today, she is involved in the largest effort to revitalize it.
“We are doing it. Even though it can be a challenge for us at times, it can be done,” Smith, the Yavapai Culture Director at the Yavapai-Apache Cultural Resource Center, told Native News Online.
For the first time in nearly 30 years, efforts to save the Yavapai-Apache languages are being made with the launch of online dictionaries and picture books featuring Dilzhe’e (Apache) and Wipukpa-Tolkapaya (Yavapai) languages.
Smith spearheads the tribe’s language revitalization by providing culture, art and language classes through the Yavapai-Apache Cultural Resource Center.
The Yavapai-Apache Nation is located in the Verde Valley of Arizona and consists of two distinct peoples, the Yavapai and Apache. The Yavapai refer to themselves as Wipuhk’a’bah and speak the Yuman language, while the Apache refer to themselves as Dil’zhe’e and speak the Athabaskan language.
