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Roberta Rose Wesaw-Engavo, one of the few remaining fluent speakers of the Eastern Shoshone language, died last week. She was 84.

Engavo not only spoke her native language but also dedicated her life to preserving the language and culture, through her knowledge of crafts like bead work and shawl making and Native American and Sun Dance Ceremonies, according to a news release.

She also had a distinctive powwow dancing style when she was active on the powwow circuit and was an expert on Sun Dance and Peyote songs and Comanche hymns.

Engavo died Aug. 1. A Monday wake at her home on the North Fork of the Little Wind River was followed by a funeral the next day. She was buried at Sacagawea Cemetery in Fort Washakie.

“Roberta’s passing is a tremendous loss for the Eastern Shoshone, but because of her lifetime of work, her legacy of keeping our traditions will live on,” James Trosper, director of the High Plains American Indian Research Institute at the University of Wyoming, said in the release.