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©2004-2008 Coastal Carolina Indian Center. All Rights Reserved. To contact the webmaster, click here. All other site inquiries should be submitted using the "Contact Us" link found above.

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The Blair A. Rudes Indigenous Language & History Collection

Memorial

Interview

Vocabulary

The following word lists were provided to Coastal Carolina Indian Center by Dr. Rudes prior to his passing in March of 2008.

  • Coastal Algonquian Vocabulary Sampler A sampling of the Coastal Algonquian language was translated by Dr. Blair A. Rudes at the request of Coastal Carolina Indian Center over a year ago. This brief vocabulary is now available in our Research Databases.
  • Tuscarora Place Name Etymologies by Dr. Blair A. Rudes - Translations of several Tuscarora place names.
  • Chief Elton Greene's Tuscarora Dictionary - Although not produced by Dr. Rudes, this word list was the first publicly available Tuscarora language dictionary available until Dr. Rudes completed his thorough and accurate Tuscarora-English/English-Tuscarora dictionary. This particular dictionary was published by the late F. Roy Johnson. The Tuscarora translations of English words are not exactly correct in their phonetic pronunciations, but considering F. Roy Johnson was a historian and author, and not an indigenous languages expert, his commitment to documenting what he could about the Tuscarora is to be greatly admired. Coastal Carolina Indian Center was given permission by Mr. Johnson's widow, Margaret Johnson, to reprint this dictionary on our website.

Research Papers

  • Giving Voice to Powhatan by Dr. Blair A. Rudes. This paper was shared with us by Dr. Rudes in 2006 as part of an ongoing dialogue we had with him about his work with the Algonquian language on the film The New World. In the paper, he explains the process he underwent to reconstruct the language of the Powhatan's people (which is also virtually identical to the Algonquian language spoken by the Indians of coastal North Carolina) for the film.
  • The First Description of an Iroquoian People: Spaniards Among the Tuscaroras before 1522 by Dr. Blair A. Rudes. ABSTRACT: It is widely accepted that the first documented encounter between Europeans and the Iroquois occurred in 1534 when the French explorer Jacques Cartier encountered the Laurentians. The Iroqouis, however, say that they had met Spaniards before the French arrived. A re-examination of a document pertaining to early Spanish explorations of North America in the context of the history of the League of the Iroquois shows that both the Western and Native views of history are correct.

 


Blair A. Rudes, Ph.D
 March 16, 2008

Blair A. Rudes, 56, died suddenly on March 16, 2008 in Charlotte, NC.

Dr. Rudes was born in Gloversville, NY on May 18, 1951 and spent his youth in Piseco, NY. After completing his early education at Piseco Elementary School and Wells Central High School, he attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where he completed his undergraduate and graduate work. He was awarded his Doctorate Degree in Linguistics in 1976.

At the time of his death, Dr. Rudes was an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He had been on the faculty of the University since 1999.

Dr. Rudes was an internationally known linguist, speaking many languages, but with a particular expertise in Native American languages. He published and edited many books and scholarly articles in his area of expertise. In 1999 his Tuscarora-English Dictionary was published by the University of Toronto
Press and at the time of his death he was completing a three volume work titled “The Catawba Language” for the University of South Carolina press.
Most recent accomplishments of note were work he had done as a dialect consultant and coach for two Hollywood movie productions. In 2004, he was hired by Dreamworks to work with the cast of the move “The New World”. This assignment required him to reconstruct the long extinct Virginia Algonquian language and then coach the cast in its syntax and pronunciation.

His work contributed significantly to the historical accuracy of the film and gained notoriety when it was featured in the “New York Times” Science Section and was the subject of a personal interview with National Public Radio. Following his work on “The New World” he was again recruited by Dreamworks to assist with the 2008 film “The Ruins” where he served as the Mayan Dialogue Coach.

In recent years, he was also the recipient of several important honors. In 2006, he was recognized by the Tuscarora Indian Nation for his contributions to preserving their language. In 2007, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a resolution
recognizing the work he had done for the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs. Most recently, on April 5, 2008, he was awarded the University at Buffalo’s Distinguished
Alumni Award.

 

(Excerpt from obituary printed in The Recorder, May 22, 2008.)



 

©2004-2008 Coastal Carolina Indian Center. All Rights Reserved.
To contact the webmaster, click here. All other site inquiries should be submitted using the
"Contact Us" link on the left border of the page.