He earned his PhD in Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on the social factors that guide Native American language endangerment and reclamation. A citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Wesley has investigated and published on the reclamation of his tribal nation's language, myaamia, which was at one point mistermed "extinct" but is actually widely used among Miami people. Wesley's current research works to build capacity for Native American languages in ways that support tribal sovereignty and survivance. His areas of teaching include linguistic anthropology, research methods, Indigenous identities, gender studies, and all aspects of Native American language learning and reclamation.