After much anxiety and barely one hour before we were scheduled to depart from Anchorage, we were given notice that Chief Marie Jones could see us at her home (she wakes up at 3:30pm). At 88 years old, Marie Smith Jones is the last speaker of Eyak, a native language of Alaska. We drove to her house in Fairview, a neighborhood in Anchorage, where her daughter Shelah Begich and chief Marie were waiting for us. We spoke about Eyak and its unfortunate fate— although some efforts were being made to document and recover the language, no one from the new generation of the Eyak nation had learned it. Marie went on to tell a few of her favorite stories from the Eyak tradition, one specifically about a blind man that is aided by an animal to see again- and then he regrets being able to see the bad things of the world. Chief Marie told us that her name meant "the voice that I am drawn to", a particularly symbolic fact. I told her that the end of this journey will be marked by the meeting of a woman that lives at the tip of Argentina, and that she, too, was the last speaker of a native language. Chief Marie was very moved by that and said an Eyak blessing for her. "Please tell her that I understand how it feels. It is a very difficult responsibility that God has placed on us. Please give her a big hug for me".
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Después de muchas ansiedad a casi una hora antes de partir de Anchorage, nos dieron la noticia de que la jefa Marie Jones nos podía ver en su casa (se levanta cada dia a las 3:30pm). Fuimos a su casa en Fairview, donde su hija Sheilah y ella nos recibieron. Hablamos del Eyak, de totems, del cuervo y el águila como los animales simbólicos de su familia, y de sus historias favoritas, como la de un hombre ciego que al recobrar la vista por un animal lamenta el hecho de poder ver la miseria del mundo. La jefa Marie nos dijo que su nombre significaba "la voz que me llama", lo cual consideramos particularmente simbólico. Le dije que el final de este viaje será marcado por el encuentro con una mujer en la punta de Argentina que, como ella, es la última hablante de un idioma. La jefa Marie pareció profundamente conmovida. Mandó una plegaria para ella y dijo: "por favor dile que sé muy bien como se siente. Es una responsabilidad muy grande que nos ha dado Dios. Por favor dale un fuerte abrazo de mi parte".