“You’d get beaten. It would only cause you pain.”

Those were the lessons that Cheryl Seidner grew up hearing from her grandfather, a man who had learned the hard way what it meant to be Wiyot in the United States.

The Wiyot tribe has lived in the Humboldt Bay region of northern California for thousands of years, since time immemorial. But Seidner’s grandfather had discovered that, if — for example — he spoke the Wiyot language Soulatluk in school, it would earn him a bang on the head or a slap with a ruler.

He did not want his children to endure the same abuse growing up. He did not want it for his grandchildren, either.

“So that’s why he wouldn’t teach his children how to speak Soulatluk,” Seidner explains. “He wouldn’t teach them. Because it would only cause problems, only cause heartache.”

Seidner’s grandfather was part of the last generation to speak fluent Soulatluk. He died in 1960, when Seidner was only 10. But decades later, Seidner would take on a role her grandfather might never have imagined.

She became a leader in helping to restore Indigenous lands and culture.

Read about Cheryl Seidner’s story on Al Jazeera’s website.