Intertribal Life Newspaper -

SPOKANE, Wash.-According to linguists, languages not learned by children in the traditional way, passed on from one generation to the next, are doomed to extinction. Unless, of course, there are conscious and deliberate efforts taken by the community and their philanthropic partners to revitalize those languages.

Salish is one of many critically endangered Indigenous languages at risk of extinction. "For 90 years, our children have not been raised with the Salish language," says Christopher Parkin, Principal of the Salish School of Spokane. "Interior Salish is only spoken by 24 surviving fluen...