Dr. Ofelia Zepeda, Contemporary Inductee, is Regents Professor of Tohono O’odham language and linguistics at the University of Arizona. She is an internationally recognized linguist, an award-winning poet and a cultural preservationist. A member of the Tohona O’odham nation, she was born and raised in Stanfield, Pinal County. She is recognized throughout the United States and worldwide as an expert in the fields of the preservation, documentation and revitalization of endangered native languages. In 1979 she co-founded the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI), a summer program to teach educators and potential educators working with American Indian communities strategies for preserving their vanishing languages. She is currently the Director of AILDI.

Ofelia spoke only her native language until the age of seven. She was the first in her family to obtain a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree degree and earned her PhD in Linguistics in 1984. Dr. Zepeda has worked in her own community to improve English and Tohono O’odham literacy. She is the author of A Papago Grammar published in 1983. Her inspiration to write the textbook arose when she was a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Arizona and was starting to teach elementary school students the Tohono O’odham language. She realized that there were no textbooks of the Tohono O’odham language. She set out to create a comprehensive teaching grammar that presented the language in the form of successive lessons. She compiled her manuscript by listening to tapes of native speakers and tribal elders.

Locally, her work with the reservation committee for Tohono O’odham Language Policy yielded an official policy that requires knowledge of and speaking competency at all grade levels, of the Tohono O’odham language for students in tribal schools. She played a key role in getting Congress to enact the Native American Languages Act of 1990. The Act gave Native languages official status in tribal government business. The passage of the Act had a ripple effect in support of language activists working to revitalize and support indigenous languages throughout the world.

In 1999 Dr. Zepeda was a recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She was awarded this prestigious fellowship for her work as a linguist, poet, editor, and community leader devoted to preserving Native American Languages and revitalizing tribal communities and cultures.

Ofelia has authored two books of award-winning poetry, Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995) and Jowed’l-ohi/Earth Movements, O’odham Poems (1996). Written in both her native language and English, her poems are nationally recognized for their cultural impact. Her poetry references tribal songs and traditions, the natural world and contemporary life in her community. Her poetry is grounded in her own personal experiences, seeing the desert as both her home and a place of origin for her people. Her poems illustrate the wisdom of the elders on the fragility of our world, our responsibility to preserve its natural resources and the gift of life. These are common themes passed down by Tohono O’odham elders.

Ofelia has served on many international, national and regional task forces and committees. She is a member of the International Task Force for the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous languages representing Indigenous people of the United States. She co-chairs the Planning Symposium for the “clearinghouse” on Endangered Languages of the Americas (IPOLA) and serves on its Executive Board. She was an Executive Board member of the National Museum of the American Indian, a branch of the Smithsonian Institute; the Chairman of the Division of American Indian Literatures of the Modern Language Association; and a Representative at Large for the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas. She was a contributor and advisor to the Heard Museum’s exhibition Home: Native People in the Southwest. She is currently the series editor of SunTracs, a Native American literary publication.

Professor Simon Ortiz, an Acoma Pueblo poet, describes Ofelia Zepeda as being “the single most important advocate of Indigenous American languages and their revitalization. She greatly encourages young Indigenous peoples, ensuring that the languages will always be a vital part of the land, culture, and community in the Indigenous American world.”  Her legacy as a nationally and internationally renowned linguist,  poet, cultural preservationist, and the invaluable contributions she has made to her own community has made a significant difference..