With her book, Where the Language Lives, Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed, published in 2022, author Janet Yoder explores the world of Vi taqʷšəblu Hilbert—an Upper Skagit Indian Tribal Elder in Washington state. We discover her life, her humor, her traditional wisdom as a guide to navigate an everchanging reality, and her life purpose which was to uplift the human spirit.
With a broad stroke of her brush and intimate storytelling, Janet Yoder writes about Vi Hilbert’s contribution to safeguarding and preserving the Lushootseed language; how the language of the people of the Salish Coast is connected with culture, a deep sense of belonging to the land, and to spiritual life. Through Vi’s life story Yoder documents how the stories are kept alive and connected to Spirit, which pervades the human experience, the animal realm, and nature and places.
Read More