A loss in our community
Dear Friends -
Recently, one of our staff members, Krissy Hill, has gone through a profound loss: her son, Rahnekawe:rih, aka Dr Montgomery Hill, passed to the other side. To support the family, we have created this fundraiser, which we invite you to donate to if you feel so moved.
Below is the obituary that Monty's sister, Kimberly Hill, wrote after consultations to ensure she was conveying the right information.
"Rahnekawę:rih Montgomery Hill, 35, of the Tuscarora Nation, Beaver Clan, passed away on April 11, 2025. He was born in Niagara Falls, NY, on January 5, 1990, to Donald C. Hill and Kristine M. (Wheatley) Hill. His favorite role was the beloved Nakeri (father) of his only child Yehwatsironnyons Gibson Lynn Clayton Maracle Hill.
He attended Tuscarora School, graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in 2011, and received a PhD in linguistics for his dissertation, "Tuscarora Morphology & Language Revitalization," in 2020 at the University of Buffalo. He was most recently awarded the Mellon Foundation's 2025 Career Enhancement Fellowship managed by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, and was an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University at Buffalo.
He was a self-professed language nerd as both a Tuscarora and Mohawk speaker, linguist, and language activist. He attended Standing Rock in 2016 and was part of the group who added the Tuscarora marker to the signpost, now in the Smithsonian Museum. He was an active community member within the Tuscarora Nation and invited to become a speaker at the community’s longhouse in 2013.
In his free time, he loved to go on walks, play video games with his child, spend time with family, and continue his learning of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous knowledge creation.
In addition to his parents and his child, he is survived by his three siblings Rachel (Yasiel Cabrera) Hill, Kimberly Hill, and Logan Hill, his grandparents, Ken and Kathleen (Patterson) Wheatley, and many loving aunties, uncles, cousins, and friends.
He was the grandson of the late Daniel C. and Hazel L. (Van Every) Hill."
If you want to hear more of his talks, you might want to Google him - he has a lot of talks on youtube. It sounds like the University of Buffalo is going to start some kind of digital archive of his work, but that hasn't happened yet.
There have many expressions of love that have been coming in, and the family is very appreciative of them all. Monty's work has already and will continue to make ripples that are far, far beyond what we can easily imagine.
Part of his work was as a linguist working to revitalize the Tuscarora language.
Towards that end, in our next email, we are going to uplift a few of the resources available around the connections between indigenous language, sustainability, and regeneration of bio-cultures. Stay tuned!
Many blessings -
The team at Rē.
Upcoming Events
The ReMembering Course
ReMembering Info Webinar
May 9, 2025, Friday, 1 pm to 2 pm ET
ReMembering New Cohort
Fridays, 2 pm to 3:30 pm ET starting May 23, 2025
Action for Oak Flat
The federal government on Thursday, April 17, 2025, announced that it plans as early as June 16, 2025 to publish a final environmental impact statement (EIS) and begin moving forward with the transfer and destruction of Oak Flat.
On Friday, April 18, Becket Law filed a letter with the Supreme Court explaining that this makes it even more urgent for the Court to hear our case. The Court has not yet decided whether to hear the case.
On April 24, 2025, Apache Stronghold requested that the district court in AZ grant “a narrow, temporary injunction prohibiting Federal Defendants from transferring Oak Flat… during the pendency of Apache Stronghold’s Supreme Court appeal.” A hearing date for this request is set for May 7, 2025 in Phoenix at 9:30AM.
Leading up to the hearing, Apache Stronghold is holding a Prayer Run & March from Sunday May 4 - Wed. May 7th. The group will journey from Oak Flat to the District Court in Phoenix.