Theresa Elizabeth (Chandler) White Weasel Walker Lamebull (April 19, 1896? – August 10, 2007) was reputedly a supercentenarian believed to have been the oldest living member of the

Gros Ventre The Gros Ventre ( , ; meaning "big belly"), also known as the Aaniiih, A'aninin, Haaninin, Atsina, and White Clay, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in north central Montana. Today the Gros Ventre people are ...

Tribe of Montana and possibly the oldest Native American ever recorded. Her Indian name was "Kills At Night" (BeeKanHay). Lamebull's family hadn't known exactly how old she was until some time around 2005 when they found a baptismal certificate which may be hers. A priest translated the Latin on the certificate as saying she was a year old when she was baptised in 1897. Lamebull was a fluent speaker of the

Gros Ventre language Atsina, or Gros Ventre (also known as ''Ananin, Ahahnelin, Ahe,'' ''A’ani, and ʔɔʔɔɔɔniiih''), was the ancestral language of the Gros Ventre people of Montana. The last fluent speaker died in 2007, though revitalization efforts are underw ...

, spoken by only a handful of other people. She helped teaching the language at Fort Belknap College, and contributed to a dictionary using the

Phraselator The Phraselator is a weatherproof handheld language translation device developed by Applied Data Systems and VoxTec, a former division of the military contractor Marine Acoustics, located in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. It was designed to serve as a ...

when she was 109. The Hays Education Resource Center on the Fort Belknap Reservation was named the 'Kills At Night Center' in her honor and at the naming ceremony Terry Brockie, an A'aninin (Gros Ventres) language teacher sang her a traditional song in the A'aninin language. She died in August 2007 at the claimed age of 111. A funeral Mass was held at St. Paul's Catholic Gymnasium in Hays, Montana, and she was buried at Mission Cemetery.

References

*Direct Conversation, Ivy Merriot, Director, Abaetern Academy, Bozeman, MT 9/5/2007 *Direct Conversation, Marlene Werk, Director, Hays Education Resource Center (Kills At Night Center), Hays, Montana 2006 *Direct Conversation, Sister Chris, St. Paul's Mission School, Hays, Montana 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamebull, Theresa 2007 deaths American supercentenarians Schoolteachers from Montana American women educators Longevity claims 20th-century Native Americans People from Blaine County, Montana Last known speakers of a Native American language Gros Ventre people People from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation 20th-century American women 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women