Janet Yoder - Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed

Heartfelt and honest, Yoder vividly portrays the remarkable life of this astounding woman with style and determination.

Jay Miller, author of Lushootseed Culture and the Shamanic Odyssey: An Anchored Radiance

Reading Where the Language Lives is like taking a long drive into Skagit Country with Vi Hilbert. I raise my hands to Janet Yoder for sharing her intimate visits with a beloved elder. Each essay is a beautifully
crafted treasure, and together they resonate as musically as an olivella shell necklace. Happiness, indeed.

Katie Jennings, filmmaker, Huchoosedah, Traditions of the Heart and The Healing Heart of Lushootseed

Where the Language Lives is a masterful presentation of the beauty and depth of Coast Salish lifeways, marvelously embodied in the life and teachings of Vi Hilbert. It is written in a flowing style, one revelation after another given just when the time is right.

Patrick Twohy, author of BeginningsA Meditation on Coast Salish Lifeways

This book arrives like a comet, bright and beautiful, illuminating a world of wonders in the life and work of Upper Skagit elder Vi Hilbert. It should be required reading for every resident of Puget Sound Country. It is a delightful and intimate look into the life and culture of one of the most respected elders of Coast Salish territory.

Lynda Mapes, author of Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village

Where the Language Lives is a profound and stunning book that captures the spirit of the treasured Upper Skagit elder Vi Hilbert with love and richness of detail. [...] Written with grace and insight [...] it chronicles the Indigenous culture that Vi Hilbert helped to preserve, which she shared over three decades with author Janet Yoder, among many others. If you live anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, you must read this book.

Priscilla Long, author of Fire and Stone: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Janet Yoders writing captures the spirit of this honorable and mischievous elder. In Lushootseed culture, words are spoken and stories are told without explanation. Words mean what the listener hears. You learned to be careful what you said in the presence of taqblu [Vi Hilbert]you may have just made her a promise. A tribute to the life of a revered elder on a mission to save her languageall that is missing are more of taqblus R-rated stories.

dxtuk ki at kn (Jack Fiander), taqblus longtime attorney and former student

In Where the Language Lives, Janet Yoder weaves a strong, beautiful basket filled with stories of Upper Skagit elder Vi (taqblu) Hilberts remarkable life and work. [...] These essays (and photos) reveal Vis warmth, determination, and generosity and show her single-minded focus on resurrecting Lushootseed, the language of many of the Pacific Coast First People. [...] If you never had the good fortune to meet Vi, to hear her tell the story of Lady Louse, or to feel the warmth of her welcome, this generous book will introduce you to her and her work. For those of us who did know her, it is a shining testament to an extraordinary woman.

Sylvia Byrne Pollack, author of Risking It

Vi Hilbert was a wisdom keeper and cultural treasure. If shed had a mantra, it would have been Stand up and speak. Janet Yoder stood side by side with Vi for decades, as her sometimes driver and frequent chronicler. Yoder vividly brings Vis generous spirt alive and magnifies her timeless work to keep Indigenous language and culture strong and enduring.

Ward Serrill, filmmaker and author of To Crack the World Open: Solitude, Alaska, and a Dog Named Woody

Where the Language Lives is a warm woven blanket of a book. With rich and reverent storytelling, Janet Yoder gifts us with stories of Upper Skagit tribal elder Vi Hilbert, continuing Vis tradition of deep generosity while sharing lessons of language and life, community and connection, family and faith. This book lifted my spirits, held my heart, and spoke to me in a universal languagelove.

Kira Jane Buxton, author of Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures

Copyright 2022 by Janet Yoder

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Girl Friday Books, Seattle
www.girlfridaybooks.com

Produced by Girl Friday Productions

Development & editorial: Devon Fredericksen
Editorial production: Jaye Whitney Debber
Cover design: Danielle Christopher

All photos courtesy of Lushootseed Research, unless otherwise noted:

Brad Burns:

Chris Duenas / Puyallup Tribal Language Program:

Paul Eubanks:

Eugene H. Field / University of Washington Libraries: (bottom)

Ron Hilbert: (bottom)

Sasha La Pointe:

Chris Leman / (bottom)

Carolyn Michael:

Jay Miller: (top)

Robby Rudine: iii (based on photo by Paul Eubanks),

Jay Samson:

Kenneth Greg Watson:

Janet Yoder: (top)

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-954854-26-0
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-954854-51-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021925827

First edition

This collection of essays beautifully chronicles the thirty-year friendship between the author and my grandmother, which started in a classroom and grew into a lifelong familial connection. Janet Yoder takes us on a visual journey with each of her essays, recounting experiences so vividly that at times it feels as though we are right there experiencing them alongside her.

The stories shared in this collection wrap us in a colorful and vibrant tapestry of topics centered around the rich cultural life of taqblu, Vi Hilbert. taqblu was a distinguished member of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe in northwest Washington State. She was a great-great-grandmother, a teacher, a scholar, and an internationally renowned storyteller. She was beloved and revered by many, both in Indigenous tribal communities and in broader diverse communities throughout the world. taqblu has been credited for saving her nearly dormant Indigenous languageLushootseedthough she would give credit to the wonderful elders, scholars, and volunteers who contributed to her lifes work in a multitude of ways. It has been said that nearly everyone who can speak Lushootseed today either learned it directly from taqblu or learned it from one of her students.

The essays capture both humorous and subtle teachings about traditional wisdoms and expectations designed to help us navigate our ever-changing world. The cultural lessons and values embedded throughout this collection demonstrate the authors profound and intimate appreciation for taqblus culture and her unwavering commitment to her work.

For taqblu, preservation of the language, culture, and ancestral wisdom was foremost in all her endeavors. She carried herself in a way that her elders would have approved of. She strove to embody the traditional teachings she was entrusted to carry and share by example. Even when the old family home she had grown up in at Nooksack was destroyed by a fire decades later, she was compelled to call upon traditional healers to take care of the home in a spiritual manner, as described in the essay Burning at Nooksack.