The last fluent speaker of her language devotes her life to creating dictionary

Marie Wilcox is the last fluent speaker of her native language, Wukchumni.

An 81-year-old Native American member of the Yokuts tribe in San Joaquin, California, Wilcox has spent seven years creating a Wukchumni dictionary, painstakingly typing out the last complete record of her language, one letter at a time.

Wilcox’s work was profiled by NYTLive’s Women in the World website, and her story was also the subject of a 10-minute 2014 Times’ Op-Doc documentary. They both tell the story of an incredibly determined woman, ready and willing to spend her remaining time preserving a language that would otherwise die with her.

According to the Times, there are more than 130 Native American languages currently in danger of disappearing. Before European contact, there were as many as 50,000 Yokuts in Central California; today there are fewer than 200.

Wilcox grew up in a one-room house and remembers her grandparents speaking Wukchumni, but she ended up speaking English with her own children. It was only when she observed her sister teaching Wukchumni to her own kids that Wilcox decided she wanted to start learning the language again.

She started by writing words down here and there, on random scraps of paper and envelopes. Then she started typing.

“She’d sit up night after night typing on the computer,” says her daughter, Jennifer Malone, in the documentary. “She was never a computer person.”

Wilcox admits it was a painstaking process.

“I’m just a pecker, one word at a time,” says Wilcox. “I was slow.”

Once she had all the words together, she decided creating a dictionary was the next logical step.

“She’d work many hours late at night and get up and work on it during the day,” says Malone. “It seemed like it would take forever. I’m very surprised we’ve gotten as far as we have. “

With Malone’s help, the dictionary took seven years to complete. Today, Wilcox is working with her grandson, Donovan, to create an audio recording of the entire dictionary.

“I’m uncertain about my language and who wants to keep it alive,” says Wilcox, reflecting on the process. “Just a few. It’s sad. It seems weird that I am the last one. It’ll just be gone one these days, I don’t know. It might go on and on.”

Lets hope so. If it does, the world will have Wilcox to thank.