September 28, 2007

A Race to Rescue Native Tongues

By ELYSE ASHBURN

Do you speak American? Ojibwa, Inupiaq, Navajo, or Tututni? These languages once described everyday life in America, with words like dibik-giizis (moon), láá'íí (one), and tulxata (water) as common as latte, Big Mac, and yes are now.

But along with other Native American tongues, they have faded even more quickly than their tribes have. In 2000 only about 380,000 people in the United States spoke an indigenous language at home, and about 1 percent of people

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