This morning Durbin Feeling passed away from complications related to Agent Orange syndrome, a condition characterized by various forms of cancer and a host of other illnesses (https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/hazardous-materials-exposure/agent-orange/related-diseases/).
Durbin was born east of Locust Grove, Oklahoma, a farming community with many Cherokees. Growing up in the 1940s, Durbin, his brother, and sister spoke Cherokee exclusively until going to elementary school. It was during elementary school where Durbin first felt anti-Native American prejudice. Durbin and other Cherokees did not speak English and did what young children do; they spoke Cherokee with each other. Sadly, Cherokee children were punished for speaking their native language and frequently paddled. Not to be discouraged, Durbin became more interested in Cherokee (Language is Everything: The Story of Cherokee Linguist Durbin Feeling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_aHyEINSHs)
At the age of 12, Durbin began reading Cherokee. Coming from a deeply devout Cherokee Baptist family, Durbin’s father introduced Durbin to the Cherokee syllabary writing system (Language is Everything). At the time, the only translation of the Bible’s New Testament was written in the Cherokee syllabary.
Like many Cherokees from Northeastern Oklahoma, for high school, Durbin was sent to the Chilocco Indian Agricultural boarding school in 1960 near Ponca City, Oklahoma. The school was established to “house, civilize, Christianize, educate, and transform American Indian youth ” (https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH042).
When I asked Durbin about his experience at Chilocco he told me that he enjoyed the school because it was a place where he met other Cherokees and his future wife Christine Eagle. For Durbin, Chilocco was a place where Cherokees experienced a sense of community.
After graduating from Chilocco, Durbin was drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam. It was in Vietnam where Durbin’s interest in Cherokee became the seed of his life’s work. Durbin’s Vietnam. To communicate with his mother, Durbin wrote several letters using the Cherokee syllabary.
Writing Cherokee using the English alphabet is difficult and not standardized. Durbin’s mother however could read and write using the Cherokee writing system. She was among the last of a generation that spoke only Cherokee with no English. Durbin spent many nights in the barracks using the symbols designed by Sequoyah more than 100 years earlier to help Cherokees communicate. From this experience with the syllabary, Durbin became interested in Cherokee, its structure, its expression, and the need for its preservation.
Upon returning from Vietnam, my father Dr. Bill Pulte met Durbin and began a lifelong collaboration. As a young linguist, my father took a job with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In Tahlequah, my father and Durbin would develop materials for schoolteachers to be used in Cherokee bilingual programs. During this period, Durbin wrote the Cherokee-English Dictionary.
Over the years Durbin contributed to several books and articles about Cherokee linguistics. Along the way he completed a masters and doctoral degree.
Over the past two decades, I was blessed with the opportunity to collaborate with Durbin on his final work, Cherokee Narratives: A Linguistic Study. Along with Durbin and my father, this collaboration involved the collection of narrative stories. This work greatly expands the availability of Cherokee literature but also it makes a substantial contribution to Cherokee preservation.
Durbin’s work in Cherokee linguistics is comprehensive and rivals only that of Sequoyah.
During the fall of 2019, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma recognized Durbin by dedicating the Cherokee language preservation center in his name. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma provided $16 million dollars to establish the Durbin Feeling Cherokee Language Center in his honor (https://www.theonefeather.com/2020/08/cherokee-national-treasure-durbin-feeling-noted-speaker-and-linguist-passes-away/).
Sadly, due to COVID19, my father and I were unable to travel to Tahlequah to visit with Durbin before his passing. Durbin leaves behind his wife Chris Feeling, two daughters Stacey Brown and Shelbi Doyeto, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Donadagohvi (Until we meet again).
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