Jeff LeerJeff Leer’s commitment to Alaska Native languages began at age seven when he began studying Tlingit in his hometown, Juneau. In 1973 he became a linguist and teacher at the Alaska Native Language Center in Fairbanks, and in 1991 he completed his Ph.D dissertation, The Schetic Categories of the Tlingit Verb, at the University of Chicago. He learned to speak both Tlingit and Alutiiq, and he has done extensive linguistic work in other languages and in the field of comparative Athabascan-Eyak-Tlingit. He is currently a linguist at Sealaska Heritage Institute. Read More Read Less