Chasing Voices

This film chronicles John Peabody Harrington’s work and traces the impact of his exhaustive research on Native communities working to restore the language of their ancestors.

From 1907 until his death more than 50 years later, ethnologist John Peabody Harrington crisscrossed the U.S., chasing the voices of the last speakers of Native America's dying languages. Moving from one tribal community to the next, he collaborated with the last speakers to document every finite detail before their languages were lost forever. Chasing Voices, airing Saturday, November 5 at 5 p.m. on WXXI-TV, chronicles Harrington’s work and traces the impact of his exhaustive research on Native communities working to restore the language of their ancestors.