These Native American women are reclaiming a ‘stolen’ part of their identity: Their language
With half of the nation’s native languages extinct, these women are dedicating their lives to preserving theirs
Quirina Geary with her daughter, Niyatsatha Geary, 9, at her home in Clearlake Oaks, Calif. (Rachel Bujalski for The Washington Post)
Megan Botel
9:48 AM
In 1980, when fourth-grader Quirina Geary’s class learned about Spanish missions and the Native American tribes they conquered, she proudly announced that her family was part of the Mutsun tribe, who lived in Central California for thousands of years.
But when her classmates asked her to speak in her native tongue, she froze. Despite growing up following many Indigenous traditions — she foraged for mushrooms and gathered acorns, her father fed the family with hunted deer, they lived intergenerationally and with extended family — she didn’t know a single Mutsun word.