The will and the resources to preserve Eskimo languages
Staying with the general theme of Northern American / Canadian / Alaskan native languages I noticed some excellent publications by the Alaska Native Language Centre. The centre was set up in 1972 under Alaskan State legislation, in order to document, preserve and perpetuate the 20 native languages of Alaska.
Its archive is probably the most extensive resource for the Eskimo and Northern Athabascan languages in the world and contains almost the entire corpus of anything that has been written about these languages as well as copies of their earliest written forms; additionally, it has an extensive archive on many related languages outside of its immediate territory.
Members of the centre’s permanent staff provide materials to bi-lingual teachers throughout the State and also assist professional linguists, anthropologists and sociologists whose work involves some interaction with any of the languages under the Centre’s remit.
To propagate the Eskimo and Athabascan languages, the centre’s staff also provide major and minor degrees under the auspices of the Alaska Native Language Program. The languages covered are; Central Yup’ik and Inupiaq Eskimo. As a measure of the centre’s success, two of the State’s native languages; Siberian Yupik and Central Yup’ik, are now the first language of families in those language’s heartlands.
With the backing of the State of Alaska; it seems that there is not only the will, but also the resources to preserve the State’s native Eskimo and Northern Athabascan languages.