Biography/History

The WNALP was originally called the Pilot Linguistics Project in Native American Languages in Wisconsin. It was an educational project under the auspices of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC), funded under Title IV of the Indian Education Act. The GLITC Education Committee established general policies of the project. The Native American Languages Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee actually carried out the operations through a sub-contract with the GLITC.

The main goal of the project was to further linguistic analysis of the languages indigenous to the region, and to foster an exchange between linguists and speakers of these languages. The project was originally organized around four language groups: Menominee, Ojibwe (Chippewa), Oneida, and Potawatomi; Ho-Chunk was later added. Twelve native speakers were hired as language resource consultants, working with a staff linguist in analyzing grammatical aspects of the languages and in preparing written and recorded sound materials.

The project was carried out in three phases:

• Phase I, 1973-1974
• Phase II, 1974-1975
• Phase III, 1974-1975

Details on the organization and administration of the project are available in the correspondence and reports folders, and the Phase II and III reports folders. The WNALP staff were:

• Counselor/Advisor: John Beaudin
• Linguistic Coordinator: John Nichols
• Linguists (Language Studied): Lawrence Foley (Oneida); Ken Miner (Menominee); John Nichols (Chippewa and Potawatomi)
• Secretaries: Katie Mc Gowaan, Evelyn Newkirk
• Chippewa language consultants: Hannah Maulson, George Oshogay, Earl Thomas
• Menominee language consultants: Wallace Pyawasit, Margaret Richmond, Merceline Sanapaw
• Oneida language consultants: Maria Hinton, Emily Schwamp, Lavina Webster
• Potawatomi language consultants: Mary Daniels, Bill Daniels, Jr., Mabel Deverney