The native language is a gift: a Hualapai language autobiography

Abstract

Lucille Jackson Watahomigie is a native speaker of Hualapai, a Yuman language with approximately 1,500 speakers, and a member of the Hualapai Tribe of northwestern Arizona. She is the founder of the nationally acclaimed Hualapai Bilingual/Bicultural Program and of the American Indian Language Development Institute, the first teacher-education program in American Indian linguistics and bilingual/bicultural curriculum development. t. She currently directs Indian education programs and teaches Hualapai language at Peach Springs Elementary School, on the Hualapai reservation.