Phillip Cash Cash
Piitamyanon Maqs Maqs
Phillip Cash Cash was born and raised on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon and is a Weyíiletpuu (Cayuse) and Nuumíipuu (Nez Perce) person. Phillip is a younger speaker of Nez Perce, a severely endangered language. His Cayuse name is Piitamyanon Maqs Maqs, which translates as "Yellow Hawk."
Currently, Phillip is a Ph.D. dissertator in the Joint Program in Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
In 2005, he received a Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) fellowship from the National Science Foundation and National Endowment of the Humanities. This DEL fellowship allowed him to complete a year of video-based language documentation fieldwork focusing on Nez Perce and Sahaptin in five reservation communities in the southern Columbia Plateau.
Recently, he received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & American Council for Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellowship for 2007–2008.
Upon completion of his dissertation, Phillip plans to continue advocating for the documentation and revitalization of endangered languages in the Columbia Plateau region and elsewhere through teaching and fieldwork.
More Information