Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska

Michael Krauss is professor emeritus of linguistics, University of Alaska. After devoting his student and postdoctoral years to Gaelic, Icelandic, and Faroese, Professor Krauss has spent his entire career since 1960 in the study of Alaska Native languages, all more or less severely endangered, with special attention to Siberian Yupik, documentary and comparative work with Athabaskan, and above all, Eya, which now has one surviving native speaker. His publications include Eyak Dictionary (1970) and In Honor of Eyak (1982). In 1972 he founded the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and directed it until 2000. Here he assembled the archive of Alaska Native language
documentation and has, especially since 1990, worked to alert the world's attention to the enormity of the language endangerment crisis.