Tribal languages all across the continent, on the brink of disappearing as fluent speakers pass away, have become the object of growing efforts at preservation.

The Cheyenne, the Blackfeet, the Gros Ventre, the Cherokee, the Miami, the Wampanoag — University of Colorado Boulder linguistics professor Andrew Cowell could list dozens that have been engaged in efforts to save the native tongues so critical to tribal identity.

Cowell has been involved with efforts to revive the Arapaho language as well as helping the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho in Oklahoma and the Gros Ventre in Montana.

“It’s something that’s really a huge issue for tribes all around the country,” he says, “because many of them are at the point where the Arapaho are — fluent speakers are in their 60s or older, even 70s and 80s, and they suddenly realize they might lose the language forever. So they’re making a lot of efforts to document the language and teach as much of it as possible to the younger generation.”

Cowell notes that some of the earlier efforts began with native Hawaiians in the 1970s and ’80s. Native American tribes have visited Hawaii to learn about their programs or invited them to the mainland for instructional visits.

Just in the past few years, Cowell adds, a new profession has evolved: language maintenance and revitalization. Schools like the University of Alberta have advertised jobs in that area, reflecting its increasing popularity in academia.

There’s even a new journal published out of the University of Hawaii called “Language Documentation and Conservation,” the first on that specific topic.

“So there is headway,” Cowell says, “but there’s still long way to go.”