Archie Thompson (May 26, 1919 – March 26, 2013) was an American

Yurok The Yurok (Karuk language: Yurúkvaarar / Yuru Kyara - "downriver Indian; i.e. Yurok Indian") are an Indigenous people from along the Klamath River and Pacific coast, whose homelands are located in present-day California stretching from Trinidad ...

elder. The Yurok are the largest

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, with approximately 6,000 members. Thompson was the oldest living Yurok and the last known native-born, active speaker of the

Yurok language Yurok (also Chillula, Mita, Pekwan, Rikwa, Sugon, Weitspek, Weitspekan) is an Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok people of Del Norte County and Humboldt County on the far north coast of California, most of whom now spe ...

at the time of his death in 2013. He was the last of about twenty Yurok elders who worked to revitalize the Yurok language. He worked with academics and linguists to preserve and revitalize the language among younger Yurok generations throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Those same linguists had originally predicted that Yurok would be extinct by 2010 and Thompson received much of the credit for saving the language. Yurok is now taught in five high schools throughout Humboldt and Del Norte counties in

northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. While the language is still

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

, the effort to preserve Yurok is considered to be the most successful revitalization effort in

Childhood

Thompson was born in a

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

on May 26, 1919, in Wa'tek Village (now known as

Johnsons, California Johnsons (formerly, Klamath) is an unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California. It is located on the Klamath River northwest of Weitchpec, at an elevation of 180 feet (55 m). History Johnsons was a settlement in the former Klamat ...

) in Humboldt County. He was sent to a government school in

Hoopa, California Hoopa (formerly Hupa, Ho-pah, Hoo-pah, Hupo, and Up-pa) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Humboldt County, California. It is located south of Weitchpec, at an elevation of . The ZIP Code is 95546. Hoopa is a ...

, when he was five years old, where he was discouraged from speaking Yurok. He returned home when he was eight years old. He was taken in by his grandmother, Rosie Jack Hoppell. Thompson was raised by his grandmother, who only spoke Yurok in her home, and his uncle. His relatives raised him in a traditional Yurok lifestyle. As a child, Thompson trapped ducks to fill feather mattresses, harvested

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

, fished for

eulachon The eulacheon ( (''Thaleichthys pacificus''), also spelled oolichan , ooligan , hooligan ), also called the candlefish, is a small anadromous species of smelt that spawns in some of the major river systems along the Pacific coast of North Americ ...

and

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

, and tracked

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

Education and military service

Thompson earned

varsity letter A varsity letter (or monogram) is an award earned in the United States for excellence in school activities. A varsity letter signifies that its recipient was a qualified varsity team member, awarded after a certain standard was met. Description ...

s in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

at Del Norte High School in

Crescent City, California Crescent City (Tolowa: ''Taa-’at-dvn''; Yurok: ''Kohpey''; Wiyot: ''Daluwagh'') is the only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California; it is also the county seat. Named for the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city, ...

, from which he graduated in 1939. Thompson was one of the first Native American students to have his name engraved on the Del Norte H.S. Coach's Cup, a school award which honors exception skills in multiple athletic sports. He attended the

Sherman Institute Sherman Indian High School (SIHS) is an off-reservation boarding high school for Native Americans. Originally opened in 1892 as the Perris Indian School, in Perris, California, the school was relocated to Riverside, California in 1903, under the n ...

, a Native American

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

, (now known as

Sherman Indian High School Sherman Indian High School (SIHS) is an off-reservation boarding high school for Native Americans. Originally opened in 1892 as the Perris Indian School, in Perris, California, the school was relocated to Riverside, California in 1903, under the n ...

) where he learned

welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was sent to the South

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Personal life

Thompson and his wife, Alta McCash, a member of the

Karuk The Karuk people are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Ran ...

people, moved to Crescent City in 1959. The couple had eight children before Alta died from complications of a fall in 1968.

Honors

In 2009, Thompson was awarded the Silver Honor in the Mentor Category from the

MetLife Foundation MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging at a ceremony held in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

Death and legacy

Archie Thompson died at a hospital in Crescent City on March 26, 2013, at the age of 93. He was survived by eight children, twenty-nine grandchildren, seventy-two great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren, and one sister.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Archie 1919 births 2013 deaths Yurok people Native American language revitalization Native American linguists Language activists Last known speakers of a Native American language United States Navy personnel of World War II People from Crescent City, California People from Humboldt County, California 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans