POLITICO ‘Race against time’: Pandemic propels fight to save Native American languages Covid hit Indian Country hard. As elders die, tribes are fighting to preserve their languages. Congress is sending cash. Maxine Wildcat Barnett at an event to celebrate her 94th birthday. | Yuchi Language Project Link Copied The news of Maxine Wildcat Barnett’s Covid hospitalization in November shook the Yuchi community of Sapulpa, a small Oklahoma city named after its first settler, a Creek Native American. At 95, Barnett is the last tribal elder who speaks the Yuchi language fluently — which means she’s one of the few remaining links to a culture her tribe is fighting to preserve.