The 2020 Winter meeting of the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas is meeting in New Orleans, LA and I’m really excited to see so much representation for Southeastern languages! I think I’m most excited about a special session on Reclaiming and Expanding Early Work on the Native Languages of Louisiana and the South co-organized by Mary Linn and Jack B. Martin. This special session will feature talks on revitalization and documentation of Koasati, Oklahoma Seminole, Tunica-Biloxi, and Chitimacha. The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma will also be presenting on revitalization and language change (Joshua Hinson and Juliet Morgan). And there will be talks on Mississippi Choctaw and Oklahoma Cherokee.
I’m honored to be able to make a contribution by presenting my work on Mvskoke past tenses. My presentation entitled ”Reanalyzing Unwitnessed Past: a view from Mvskoke (Creek)” will discuss my ongoing fieldwork investigating the interactions of tense and evidence in Mvskoke, drawing on data from both the Muscogee Creek and Oklahoma Seminole dialects. My work looks into an alternative view of witnessed-unwitnessed past tense systems.