“Returning to the Earth”: Ekvn-Yefolecv 

A people’s language transmits generations of local memory and understanding, knowledge that could help cure diseases, save biodiversity, and even address the threat of climate change. Fundamentally, each language is “a unique vision of what it means to be human.”

Currently, an estimated 167 Indigenous languages are spoken in the US, but it is estimated that only 20 will still be in use by 2050. As Dr. Richard Grounds, executive director of the Yuchi Language Project, states: “When the prospect of losing your language is no longer a theoretical problem but a mortal threat sharpened by every dip in elders’ health and each passing funeral, the effort to keep a language alive proceeds with much greater intensity.”

Ekvn-Yefolecv (“ee-gun yee-full-lee-juh”) is an intentional ecovillage community of the Indigenous Maskoke people. In Maskoke, Ekvn-Yefolecv means “returning to the earth” and “returning to our homelands”––a poignant name for a community who, 180 years after being forcibly relocated, at last returned to their ancestral lands in 2018, in what is commonly known as Alabama. Through linguistic revitalization, cultural expression, ecological design, and regenerative agriculture, Ekvn-Yefolecv fights to reverse the legacies of colonialism and assimilation; to restore, reinvigorate, and celebrate the Indigenous practices, culture, and connection of the Maskoke people to their home.    

Ekvn-Yefolecv envisions the income-sharing, non-extractive community as both a site and a model for linguistic, cultural, and environmental sustainability. The community seeks to restore traditional cultural practices and rekindle an enduring, symbiotic relationship with the land. The project will restore practices around matriarchal government, clothes production, and food.  Residents of the ecovillage are reintroducing species like sturgeon and buffalo and replanting traditional crops that were eliminated when they were forced off their lands. Reconnecting with native species and traditional food practices that respect the land and the people on it enables the Maskoke to live their values of vnokeckv etemocet fullēt owēs (“going about having love for one another”), as well as deepen their connection to the natural world that gave shape to their language and culture. Ultimately, these “regenerative lifeways” can also serve as a model for other Indigenous-led efforts.  

Restoration of language is critical to achieving the Maskoke’s communal, ethical, and ecological goals. As Co-Director Marcus Briggs-Cloud notes, “the silence of the Maskoke language equals the disappearance of Maskoke People.” He went on to say that language “is the gateway to traditional cultural worldview, cosmology, medicine, and ceremony. Traditional ecological knowledge, upon which our most authentic Maskoke contributions to climate solutions rely, is embedded deep within our Maskoke language. We extrapolate this knowledge through linguistic reflection, which equips us with the ethical lens and practical management tools necessary to become more effective stewards of our bioregion.”    

As such, language instruction lies at the heart of Ekvn-Yefolecv. With only 19 adult speakers of the Maskoke language east of the Mississippi, this program for young people to learn the language is vital to the survival of the people and for the health of the land they inhabit. The Ekvn-Yefolecv model for teaching language is immersive and rooted in traditional understandings, rather than on the colonial pedagogical structures of English. From the pre-verbal stage onward, students learn entirely in Maskoke. Though Western topics are included, the curriculum centers Maskoke agricultural, ecological, and cultural practices.    

 In addition to Maskoke language programs, Mellon’s $3.5 million grant supports the construction of Ekvn-Yefolecv’s new Vlahoke (uh-lah-hoe-ghee) main lodge. In accordance with the Maskoke’s commitment to environmentally regenerative practices, Vlahoke will be a completely off-grid Living Building Challenge-registered eco-lodge, the world’s most rigorous standard for green buildings. It will provide a place for hosting retreats, meetings, spiritual gatherings, immersive educational and professional activities, and other programs for Indigenous people and visitors. Vlahoke will also feature a farm-to-table restaurant and a museum that serves as an educational platform centering on historical and contemporary Indigenous practices.