Ofelia Zepeda | |
---|---|
Born | 1952 |
Nationality | American |
Title | Professor |
Awards | Macarthur Fellow [1] |
Academic background | |
Alma mater |
|
Thesis | Topics in Papago Morphology (1984) |
Doctoral advisor | Susan Steele |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Linguistics |
Sub-discipline | Language documentation,language activism,Tohono O'odham,indigenous languages of America |
Institutions | The University of Arizona |
Website | University of Arizona Faculty Page |
Ofelia Zepeda (born in Stanfield,Arizona,1952) is a Tohono O'odham poet and intellectual. She is Regents' Professor of Tohono O'odham language and linguistics and Director of the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) [2] at The University of Arizona. [3] Zepeda is the editor for Sun Tracks,a series of books that focuses on the work of Native American artists and writers,published by the University of Arizona Press. [4]
Zepeda is a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and is well-known for her efforts in the preservation of and promotion of literacy in Tohono O'odham. She served as director of the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Arizona from 1986 to 1991. [5] She is a consultant and advocate on behalf of some American indigenous languages. She is the author of A Papago Grammar and co-author of the article "Derived Words in Tohono O'odham",published in the International Journal of American Linguistics . [6] She was a student of MIT linguistics professor Ken Hale. [7]
Zepeda has worked with her tribe to improve literacy in both English and Tohono O'odham. [8] In 1983,she developed A Papago Grammar from tapes of Native speakers because no textbook existed for the classes she taught. [8] Her work with the reservation committee for Tohono O'odham language policy yielded an official policy that encourages the speaking of the Native language at all grade levels. [8]
In 1995 she published a book of poetry,Ocean Power:Poems from the Desert,and she titled the introduction,"Things That Help Me Begin to Remember".
In 1999,Zepeda received a MacArthur Fellowship. [9] She was a member of the literary advisory committee for Sun Tracks,a publishing program featuring Native American works,and is the series editor. [6] In 2012,her book of poetry was banned by Tucson schools. [10]
The Tohono Oʼodham are a Native American people of the Sonoran Desert, residing primarily in the U.S. state of Arizona and the northern Mexican state of Sonora. The United States federally recognized tribe is the Tohono Oʼodham Nation. The Ak-Chin Indian Community also has Tohono O'odham members.
Phaseolus acutifolius, also known as the tepary bean, is a legume native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions from Arizona through Mexico to Costa Rica. The water requirements are low. The crop will grow in areas where annual rainfall is less than 400 mm (16 in).
Oʼodham or Papago-Pima is a Uto-Aztecan language of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico, where the Tohono Oʼodham and Akimel Oʼodham reside. In 2000 there were estimated to be approximately 9,750 speakers in the United States and Mexico combined, although there may be more due to underreporting.
The Akimel O'odham, also called the Pima, are an Indigenous people of the Americas living in the United States in central and southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua. The majority population of the two current bands of the Akimel O'odham in the United States is based in two reservations: the Keli Akimel Oʼodham on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and the On'k Akimel O'odham on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC).
The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ancestry of the Ute language of Utah and the Nahuan languages of Mexico.
Kenneth Locke Hale, also known as Ken Hale, was an American linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studied a huge variety of previously unstudied and often endangered languages—especially indigenous languages of North America and Australia. Languages investigated by Hale include Navajo, O'odham, Warlpiri, and Ulwa.
Sentinel Peak is a 2,897 ft (900 m) peak in the Tucson Mountains southwest of downtown Tucson, Arizona, United States. The valley's first inhabitants grew crops at the mountain's base, along the Santa Cruz River. The name "Tucson" is derived from the O'odham Cuk Ṣon, meaning "the base [of the mountain] is black". In the 1910s, University of Arizona students used local basalt rock to construct a 160 ft (50 m) tall block "A" on the mountain's east face, near its summit, giving the peak its other name, "A" Mountain. The peak is part of a 272-acre park, the largest natural resource park in the City of Tucson.
The O'odham,Upper Oʼodham, or Upper Pima are a group of Native American peoples including the Akimel O'odham, the Tohono Oʼodham, and the Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham. Their historical territory is in the Sonoran Desert in southern and central Arizona and northern Sonora, and they are united by a common heritage language, the O'odham language. Today, many O'odham live in the Tohono O'odham Nation, the San Xavier Indian Reservation, the Gila River Indian Community, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Ak-Chin Indian Community or off-reservation in one of the cities or towns of Arizona.
Tumamoc Hill is a butte located immediately west of "A" Mountain and downtown Tucson, Arizona. It is home to many radio, television, and public safety transmitters. The 860-acre ecological reserve and U.S. National Historic Landmark was established by the Carnegie Institution in 1903. The University of Arizona (UA) owns a 340-acre (1.4 km2) preserve and leases another 509 acres (2.06 km2) as a research and education facility. The Steward Observatory maintains a small astronomical observatory with a 20-inch (510 mm) telescope on the hill. Besides being a prominent landmark, Tumamoc Hill has a long and varied history, and is currently an important site for ecological and anthropological research as well as a refuge and a recreational option for the people of Tucson. Part of the University of Arizona, the Desert Laboratory is located on Tumamoc.
The Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham, also known as Areneños or Sand Papagos, are a Native American peoples whose traditional homeland lies between the Ajo Range, the Gila River, the Colorado River, and the Gulf of California. They are currently unrecognized at both the state and federal level in the United States and Mexico, although the Tohono Oʼodham Nation has a committee for issues related to them and has land held in trust for them. They are represented by a community organization known as the Hia-Ced Oʼodham Alliance. The Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham are no longer nomadic, and the majority today live in or near Ajo, Arizona, or the small settlements of Blaisdell and Dome near Yuma.
The Tohono Oʼodham Nation is the collective government body of the Tohono Oʼodham tribe in the United States. The Tohono Oʼodham Nation governs four separate sections of land with a combined area of 2.8 million acres (11,330 km2), approximately the size of Connecticut and the second-largest Indigenous land holding in the United States. These lands are in the Sonoran Desert of south central Arizona and border the Mexico–United States border for 74 miles (119 km). The Nation is organized into 11 local districts and has a tripartite system of government. Sells is the Nation's largest community and functions as its capital. The Nation has about 34,000 enrolled members, most of whom live off of the reservations.
Frances Jane Hassler Hill was an American anthropologist and linguist who worked extensively with Native American languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family and anthropological linguistics of North American communities.
Pamela Uschuk is an American poet, and 2011 Visiting Poet at University of Tennessee. She won a 2010 American Book Award, for Crazy Love: New Poems.
Ruth Murray Underhill was an American anthropologist. She was born in Ossining-on-the-Hudson, New York, and attended Vassar College, graduating in 1905 with a degree in Language and Literature. In 1907, she graduated from the London School of Economics and began travelling throughout Europe. During World War I, she worked for an Italian orphanage run by the Red Cross.
The Machita incident refers to events in southern Arizona between October 1940 and May 1941 related to the resistance by traditional O'odham chief and medicine man Pia Machita to the United States draft of Native American men in the World War II era. Because the government feared his influence among Native American peoples, tribal and federal forces attempted to arrest Machita in October for this resistance.
Colleen M. Fitzgerald is an American linguist who specializes in phonology, as well as language documentation and revitalization, especially with Native American languages.
Rosamond Spicer was an American anthropologist and a writer. She worked with her husband Edward Holland Spicer who was a very well known anthropologist who authored many books which included the book which she had jointly edited titled People of Pascua (1988) which included a section by her titled Living in Pascua, Looking Back Fifty Years.
Madeleine Mathiot was a Professor emerita of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York.
Juan Dolores, was a Tohono O'odham Native American of the Koló:di dialect, acting as one of the first linguists of the O'odham language. He is the first person to document traditional Tohono O'odham fables and myths, and worked with Alfred L. Kroeber to document the first studies into the O'odham language's grammar, which would eventually be compiled and published alongside other documents in The Language of the Papago of Arizona by John Alden Mason.
Maria Chona (1845-1936) was a native American weaver and participant in anthropological research.