Stephanie "Morning Fire" Fielding (Mohegan: Yôpôwi Yoht) is a Mohegan linguist. Her work focuses on the resurrection and revitalization of the Mohegan language.^[4] During the 2017-2018 academic year, she was a Presidential Fellow and lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Yale University.^[5][6] Fielding lives on the Mohegan reservation in southeastern Connecticut, in Uncasville.^[3]

Fielding holds a Bachelor of Arts in linguistics and anthropology from the University of Connecticut, as well as a Master of Science in linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).^[7] She was the first student to graduate from a two-year Masters program at MIT "for members of indigenous communities whose languages are dead or dying."^[8] Her Master's thesis, The Phonology of Mohegan-Pequot,^[9] includes diary excerpts written in Mohegan from her relative Fidelia Fielding, the last fluent speaker of the Mohegan language.^[10] Much of Fielding's graduate work focused on linguistic algorithms that allow her to take accepted proto-Algonquian words in order to recreate an authentic Mohegan vocabulary.^[11]

In 2006, Fielding published A Modern Mohegan Dictionary.^[12] She also created the online Mohegan Language Project,^[13] a central part of her efforts to keep her ancestral language alive. Of this project, Fielding states that "the goal is fluency," and offers links to a Mohegan-English dictionary, phrase book, pronunciation guide, exercises, and an audio option.^[14] In an interview with the New York Times, Fielding said "In order for a language to survive and resurrect, it needs people talking it, and for people to talk it, there has to be a society that works on it."^[15]

She has worked "as a teacher, writer, editor, graphic artist and radio announcer. She has also served on the board of directors of educational institutions, media outlets, non-profit organizations, and religious organizations."^[7] She often translates English into Mohegan for speakers at Mohegan traditional ceremonies.^[16]