Lucille Belle Robedeaux ( Matin, June 10, 1915 – November 3, 2005), sometimes spelt Roubedeaux, was a tribal leader of the Osage of

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

and the last surviving native speaker of the

Osage language Osage (; Osage: ''Wažáže ie'') is a Siouan language spoken by the people of the Osage Nation in northern Oklahoma. Their original territory was in the present-day Ohio River Valley, which they shared with other Siouan language nations. Slow ...

Life

Lucille Belle Matin was born in

Wynona, Oklahoma Wynona is an incorporated town in central Osage County, Oklahoma, United States. It was founded by a local Osage-Cherokee rancher, Antoine Rogers, in 1903. Notes References External links Wynona Public Schools {{authority control Town ...

, a daughter of Walter Jones and Maggy Helen Matin of the Eagle Clan. Her parents soon moved to

Hominy Hominy is a food item produced from dried maize (corn) kernels that have been treated with an alkali, in a process called nixtamalization ( is the Nahuatl word for "hominy"). "Lye hominy" is a type of hominy made with lye. History The process ...

, where she attended school. She was one of the last Osage to have a traditional marriage, with the exchange of many horses. On November 4, 1946, she married Lee Robedeaux, and they had children. Robedeaux worked at St. John's Hospital,

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

, as a nurse's aide from the 1950s until she retired in the late 1970s. An active member of the Altar Society of St. Joseph's Catholic Church and of the Mound Valley Homemakers, she became a community leader, as an Elder of the

Osage Nation The Osage Nation ( ) () is a Midwestern Native American nation of the Great Plains. The tribe began in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 1620 A.D along with other groups of its language family, then migrated west in the 17th cen ...

and as advisor of the Tribal Dance Committee, promoting the carrying on of Osage traditions. She was fond of bull fights and the horse races in

Hot Springs, Arkansas Hot Springs is a resort city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County, Arkansas, Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs ...

, and traveled around the US and also to Hawaii, Mexico, and Europe. By the time of Robedeaux's death in 2005, aged ninety, she was the last native speaker of the Osage language. A program had been initiated to revive the language, but with little success: "This is the last train out. If we can't get it done this time around, then that's it. There is no more after this" said "Uncle Mogre" of the Osage, who had been working to preserve the language. The Osage language had then been dwindling for nearly 200 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roubedeaux, Lucille Last known speakers of a Native American language 1915 births 2005 deaths Osage people Native American people from Oklahoma 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native American people 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American people Language activists People from Osage County, Oklahoma 21st-century American people 21st-century American women 20th-century American people 20th-century American women