The Yinka Déné Language Institute
646 Stoney Creek Road
Vanderhoof BC V0J 3A1 Canada
250-561-5848, local 5460 (telephone)
250-561-5874 (FAX)


The Yinka Déné Language Institute is devoted to the preservation and promotion of Yinka Dene language and culture. Our activities include:


In memoriam Catherine Coldwell

It is with deep sadness that we announce that Catherine (Bird) Coldwell [née Prince] passed away early on the morning of Saturday March 2nd after a long and courageous battle with lung cancer.

Catherine was a champion of language revitalization and contributed her efforts to curriculum development and language documentation to our communities, to school districts and several post-secondary institutions. She advocated to have language taught in schools and was the first language teacher in the public school in Fort St. James in the 1970s. She worked for many years for the Yinka Dene Language Institute (affiliated with the College of New Caledonia) and then served as a Director.

In addition, Catherine was a pillar of the Lusilyoo (Frog) clan at Nak’az̲dli and took an active part in teaching and revitalizing the potlatch system; she seldom missed a potlatch in Nak’az̲dli.

Catherine is going to be tremendously missed by our community.

We honour her memory and will do our best to celebrate her life and commit to carrying on the practices and principles she championed.

The family requests that those who wish to honour her memory donate to the Carrier Linguistic Society (please call 250-996-7171).



News and Announcements

RSS feed
We now have an RSS feed. Subscribe to be notified of updates to the site: RSS.
Yinka Dene Dustl'us
Shana Labatch and Lillian Sam at the Learning Hub at the College of New Caledonia in Fort St. James are publishing a monthly newsletter almost entirely in Carrier called the Yinka Dene Dustl'us. Submissions from readers are welcome. It can be downloaded here.
The Carrier Language: a brief introduction
A slightly revised new printing of The Carrier Language: A Brief Introduction is now available from the College of New Caledonia Press.
Pocket English-Carrier Dictionary
A pocket-sized dictionary of Stuart Lake Carrier has been published. This dictionary is designed especially for those learning the language. Although pocket-sized, it contains over 3,000 entries. Here is a flyer with more information, and here are two sample pages. Contact Nak'azdli band office: 250-996-7171.

If you would like to receive email announcements of events and publications, please submit your email address here using the form below.


Please select one of the following for further information.

For information about other First Nations languages of British Columbia, about the First Nations languages of British Columbia in general, and about endangered languages, language maintenance, and related topics, go to the First Nations Languages of British Columbia web site.

Nous sommes désolés de ne pas avoir tout traduit en français. Néanmoins, certains renseignments sont disponibles en français. Cet index en français.

Veuillez nous communiquer en français si vous voulez.


Updated 2012-09-28



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Yinka Dene Language Institute © 2009