LANGUAGE & CULTURE LEAD

Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ, otahyǫ́:ni: (Wolf clan). Historian and first-language speaker. Stephen grew up in a traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ household at Oswé:gęˀ (Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Canada). Stephen is our language teacher, historian, and conveyer of the inspiration behind the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project. The inspiration itself comes from the wisdom and strength of all Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ people who came before who maintained language and culture and ties to the land against much adversity.

PROJECT MANAGER

Michelle Seneca (Gayogo̲hó:nǫˀ, Turtle Clan) serves as Project Manager for the Project. Having been raised on the Seneca Cattaraugus Reservation and living within the Gayogo̲hó:nǫˀ community at Cayuga Lake, she has been a resident of Tompkins County since 2021. Michelle brings an enduring dedication to community-led initiatives, guiding Ithaca-area partnerships with a focus on stewardship and cultural integrity rooted in Hodinohsó:nih principles.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Sgę́:noˀ Swagwé:gǫhˀ (Greetings/Peace All of You). Jim Wikel ni gya:soh (I am called). I am from Onǫdowáˀga:ˀ Gayogo̲hó:nǫˀ neh:ni Gahnawiyóˀgeh (Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma). I currently reside in Salem, OR. I began learning language in 2015 in Oklahoma. As a person in recovery, I found that language and culture was the missing piece of my identity. I have worked in the behavioral health/addiction field since 2008. Working with Native clients I encourage them to learn their own languages. Recovery means getting back something you thought was lost. Ogwa:węh means "It belongs to us." I am reclaiming what belongs to us.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Karen has lived on Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ land for forty years. With a background in music, philosophy and education, she served as the education director of the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) from 1998-2018 and continues to teach piano and to perform with Music’s Recreation. Of Eastern European Jewish heritage, she has always wondered about the interrelationships of heredity, culture and place and feels honored to learn and support the language that is rooted here.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Noah been a student of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ nigawęnóˀdęˀ since June 2021. The mission of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project resonates with him as someone who was born and raised on traditionally held Hodinǫhsǫ́:nih lands and as a descendant of Japanese immigrants who underwent intergenerational loss of language and culture. His past work experience includes grassroots organizing and fundraising on environmental issues and sexual assault prevention, vegetable farming, and research on emerging contaminants. Currently, he serves as technical director of a citizen science-based nonprofit called the Community Science Institute.

John Whitman is a professor and past chair of the Department of Linguistics at Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Harvard University in 1985. Whitman has previously served as director of the Department of Crosslinguistic Studies (言語対照研究系) at the National Institute of Japanese Language and Linguistics (国立国語研究所) in Tokyo, Japan and Director of the East Asia Program at Cornell. His linguistic specializations are East Asian linguistics, comparative syntax, language typology, and historical linguistics. Recent publications in linguistics include Korean: A Linguistic Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2020, with Sungdai Cho), Ryūkyū shogo to Kodai Nihongo: Nichiryū sogo no saiken ni mukete (琉球諸語と古代日本語―日流祖語の再建に向けて, Ryūkyūan and Premodern Japanese: Toward the Reconstruction of Proto-Japanese-Ryūkyūan), Hitsuji shobō, 2016, with Yukinori Takubo and Tatsuya Hirako), a chapter on “Diachronic interpretations of word order cohesion” (2017, with Yohei Ono, in the volume From Micro-change to Macro-change, Oxford University Press), the chapter on “Topic Prominence” in the Blackwell Companion to Syntax (2017, with Waltraud Paul), and the chapter “Old Korean” in the Blackwell Handbook of Korean Linguistics (2015). Whitman’s recent nonlinguistic research has focused on the role of vernacular reading in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Central Asia. Since 2019, he has been honored to work with A. Stephen Henhawk, native speaker and Knowledgekeeper of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ, the Indigenous language of the Cayuga Lake region. Whitman has two sons and is married to Michelle Troberg of Hamilton, Ontario.

ELDERS

At the Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project, we are fortunate to have Elders in Consultation, whose identities are not published out of reverence for their role and respect of their wishes. Their perspectives and wisdom ring through the work and the entire Advisory Board and staff of the GLP say i:soˀ nya:wę́h to them for lending their beautiful hearts, minds, and spirits to our work.