Sad news: UW-Green Bay alumna, Oneida Language champion Maria Hinton dies

An award-winning UW-Green Bay alumna who fought to preserve the language and culture of the Oneida people passed away Sunday (July 28). Maria Hinton was 103. As Log readers may recall, Hinton was a UW-Green Bay Founders Award and Most Distinguished Alumni Award recipient who in 2009 was honored with a Prism Award from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She helped found the Oneida Turtle School and worked there well into her 90s as a culture and language instructor. In 2008, then-UW-Green Bay Communication staffer Mike Heine captured some terrific footage of Hinton and UW-Green Bay Prof. Cliff Abbott’s Oneida Language Project, which seeks to preserve the disappearing Oneida language. Abbott was a longtime friend of Hinton’s, and we extend our sympathies to him, her family, her community and all who knew her. We will pass along information concerning arrangements as soon as it becomes available. You can view the Oneida Language Project video and a photo gallery, along with our written remembrance of Hinton – click here.