Archie Thompson, oldest member of Yurok Tribe, passes at 93

Monday, April 8, 2013  

Archie Thompson, who was the oldest member of the Yurok Tribe of California, died on March 26. He was 93.

Thompson was a fluent speaker of Yurok. He was among a group of elders who worked to revitalize the language, an effort that has resulted in more than 400 members with basic, intermediate and advanced skills.

"It's our language that truly gives us our identity as Yurok people," Chairman Thomas P. O'Rourke Sr., who was Thompson's son-in-law, told The Los Angeles Times. "He is very much responsible for preserving not just a way of life, but the identity of a people."

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Archie Thompson dies at 93; Yurok elder kept tribal tongue alive (The Los Angeles Times 4/7)