[4] "That she survived her years in boarding school and went on to help her community by perpetuating the language is a powerful statement," said her grandson, Matthew J. Martinez.

"No matter the harsh conditions, she still carried that desire to hold on to her language and culture and document it and pass it on," said Martinez, who learned Tewa from her.

In the mid-60s, while she was working at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Pueblo, she met a linguist, Randall Speirs, who asked for her help in documenting the Tewa language.

4766, the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act, was signed into law, authorizing funding for new programs that tribes will use to prevent the loss of heritage and culture.

[15] The San Juan Pueblo Tewa Dictionary, written by Martinez in 1992, was described as "one of the most remarkable of these efforts at documentation of an endangered language," ... [by] Melissa Axelrod, associate professor of linguistics at the University of New Mexico.

"[5] As of 2008, her grandson, Dr. Matthew J. Martinez "serves on the Ohkay Owingeh School Board, where he is assisting in the implementation and support of the Tewa language curriculum.