New course from our 2026 Reclaim and Sustain fellow Conor Yiamkis, a participant in the California Native Languages cohort. Connor is a member of the Illmawi band of the Pit River Tribe and a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Davis, whose work focuses on the community-led reclamation of Í ssi wa ó tissi (Achumawi), one of two languages traditionally spoken by the modern-day Pit River Tribe’s 11 bands.
Working alongside tribal language teachers and researchers, he supports grassroots efforts to reclaim a language with no remaining speech community by drawing on historical documentation, the AchumawiFLEX database, and archival recordings. He has also contributed to innovative language-learning initiatives, including distance-learning resources, instructional YouTube videos, and domain-based
teaching materials that help learners bring the language into their everyday lives.