Where the Language Lives

This is a collection of essays about Vi Hilbert, a Native American tribal elder who spent a lifetime preserving the indigenous language of Lushootseed, which had been oral only. While the language is highlighted, much of the book focuses on customs, culture, and folk stories.

This is not a book about academics and research. This is about relationships. It isn't necessarily linear. It is basically a love letter to a mentor.

If you are interested in Native American/First Nation culture, you will enjoy this.

Family friendly.

Janet Yoder wrote an ode to the teacher who changed her life. Where the Language Lives is a collection of essays about the life of Vi Hilbert (Lushootseed name: taqʷšəblu), a member of the Upper Skagit Indian tribe in northwest Washington. Vi Hilbert is credited with saving her nearly dormant indigenous language Lushootseed. Such a topic always piques my interest.

Lushootseed language

The Lushootseed language values words about animals and nature. It has only recently become a written language, using IPA to convey its sounds. Vi’s parents wanted her to speak English because the authorities wanted her to, so she was only passively exposed to the Lushootseed language at a young age. Vi Hilbert was not initiated to practice spirit power or healing, as her parents felt there was something more important for her to do in the future.

Vi did not turn her attention to linguistics until her fifties. She took over a teaching post from linguist Thomas Hess who taught her how to write her language. The tribal elders helped her decipher speech from recorded tapes and with great dedication she achieved her goal. Had she not done so it might have been too late and more words, meanings and grammar would have been lost forever. She made the materials about her language widely available, which was not appreciated by everyone.

Culture

Vi Hilbert had a habit of claiming people as family. From the 10 things that Janet learned from Vi it sounds like she lived her life with passion. The reader gets some insight into the tribal culture through accounts of longhouse meetings, stories from the past and explanations of current customs such as gifting blankets and baskets. What surprised me is that this is definitely not an account that focuses on the suffering of indigenous people. I don’t know if these details were simply left out or if it was felt less strongly by Vi than by elders of other tribes.

It is the little things that make this book interesting, such as the rituals involved in selecting a tree to make a canoe and the many Lushootseed words shared with the reader.

Perspective

Janet Yoder writes about Vi Hilbert from her own perspective, making Where the Language Lives more about her journey than Vi’s. The author’s voice and point of view is very present, making you feel a certain distance from Vi. I would have liked it more if the story had been told differently, for example by using more literal quotes from interviews or meetings instead of paraphrasing almost everything. Stories about Vi growing up and other experiences that the author was not present for could have easily been written without the author relating it to other anecdotes. Now it seems more like a book for those who knew Vi intimately than a book for others interested in Vi’s life, the Lushootseed language and culture.

Some events that have special meaning to Janet Yoder are repeatedly mentioned, such as how Janet was welcomed into the classroom despite being an outsider. Janet Yoder sounds extremely grateful when she talks about the many ways she was accepted by Vi. I can clearly feel her gratitude from the way she writes and after a while it starts to make me feel a little uncomfortable. The following quote illustrates this perfectly, “You cover yourself with this blanket and you understand it is not really yours.”

This book will be very dear to her and others who belong to Vi’s (adopted) family. For me, this is a very educational book. It helps me broaden my knowledge of indigenous tribes and languages; a very valuable piece of history, present and future, that I would not otherwise be exposed to.

Vi Hilbert (1918-2008) was a respected elder of the Upper Skagit people. She is credited with, almost singlehandedly, preserving the Salish-based Lushootseed language. As a working class Native woman she grew up in Washington state, moving as her father logged and fished, listening to her parents and elders speak the language. While visiting relatives she saw the linguist Thomas Hess write down Lushootseed for the first time, and was seized with a desire to learn more.

Preserving the language became her mission in life. She taught Natives and non-Natives, like Yoder herself, at the University of Washington for 17 years. She patiently transcribed tapes, made recordings, wrote and published books, and promoted the use of Lushootseed where ever she went.

Her dedication, her humor and humility, touched many. In this book Yoder pays tribute to her teacher. It is a fascinating, highly readable view into a rich and complex culture, full of longhouses, canoes, rituals, salmon, mountain goat wool blankets, loss and reclamation. This remarkable woman was named a Washington Living Treasure in 1989 and received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1994. Today you see Lushootseed on street signs and parks, in archives and in elementary school classes, thanks to this spirit-filled woman. The book includes many photographs and will be appreciated by anyone interested in Native American cultures, linguistics, and cultural reclamation. Publication date: May 2022.

The author Janet Yoder wrote a book about her life-long teacher Vi Hilbert, a Native-American tribal elder whom she first met at a class of the Indigenous language Lushootseed and who not only helped preserve this originally only orally transmitted language but also told her about different aspects of her culture like telling stories, building a canoe, weaving baskets, cooking, ritual burning and such. Besides she also included students into her family, so it´s also a tribute of the author to this approachable woman.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

* Janet Yoder writes essays that tell of her relationship with tribal elder, Vi Hilbert, U of Washington Professor, scholar and preserver of the Indiginous language, Lushootseed. The relationship is confirmed by Hilbert’s great-granddaughter in the foreword, and each of the essays provides something unique about language and the cultures it helps to define. I wish I had had the opportunity to learn from Vi Hilbert. Yoder gives us the next best thing.

Thank you to Janet Yoder, Girl Friday Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.