Native Languate Leads to Career as Linguist

The O’odham girl grew up in a small Arizona farm town and began studying English in first grade. Fascinated by words, Ofelia Zepeda became a linguist, a poet and author of the first grammar textbook book of the Tohono O’odham language. Today the UA Regents’ Professor in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences is acclaimed for her efforts to preserve and revitalize endangered languages around the world. She is co-founder and longtime director of the American Indian Language Development Institute and a MacArthur Fellow. Considered “a powerful role model,” Zepeda encourages students to write poems and songs in their tribal language, developing a new body of Native American literature.