Author: Laura Collins-Hughes

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/09/28/reviving_wampanoag_earns_linguist_a_genius_grant/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed5_HP

First she cried. Then she found out about the money and nearly fainted.

Jessie Little Doe Baird was overcome at the news that her 17 years of linguistic work — resurrecting the language the Wampanoag people spoke and wrote until at least the mid-1800s — had landed her a MacArthur Fellows “genius grant’’ of $500,000. The 23 recipients of this year’s John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants, including five others from New England, were announced this morning.