Chasing Voices: The Story of John Peabody Harrington (2021)

  • PG
  • 11/15/2021 (US)
  • Documentary
  • 57m

The Story of John Peabody Harrington

Overview

For 50 years, controversial ethnographer John Peabody Harrington crisscrossed the United States, frantically searching and documenting dying Native American languages. Harrington amassed over a million pages of notes on over 150 different tribal languages. Some of these languages were considered dead until his notes were discovered. Today tribes are accessing the notes, reviving their once dormant languages, and bringing together a new generation of language learners in the hope of saving Native languages.

Daniel Golding

Director

Cast

Jack Marr's headshot

Jack Marr

Self - John P. Harrington's assistant
Kathryn Klar's headshot

Kathryn Klar

Self - Harrington biographer, UC Berkeley
Ernestine DeSoto's headshot

Ernestine DeSoto

Self - Barbareño Chumash, daughter of last native speaker
Gertrude Van Fleet-Dash's headshot

Gertrude Van Fleet-Dash

Self - Mojave Elder
David Oechsner's headshot

David Oechsner

Self - Fort Mojave Tribe
Leanne Hinton's headshot

Leanne Hinton

Self - Prof Emeritus of Linguistics UC Berkeley
Richard Applegate's headshot

Richard Applegate

Self - Linguist
Nora McDowell's headshot

Nora McDowell

Self - Fort Mojave Tribe

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