The Race To Save The Haida Language

SKIDEGATE, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS - FEBRUARY 14: Chief John Williams (Git Kun), 82, sits in his home in Skidegate on February 14, 2005, one of two Haida communities in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), the Canadian archipelago south of Alaska. It is estimated that the Haida Nation has less than 65 people who speak the Haida language, and that the average age is 70 to 80. Some of the elders in Skidegate gather daily in the Skidegate Haida Language House, a longhouse dedicated to audio recording the language. This is the elder's attempt to salvage the rapidly fading language. "When we lose our Haida language we can no longer call ourselves Haida people," says Williams who is fluent in Haida. He is the hereditary Chief of Tanu village, long abandoned when small-pox nearly wiped out the entire Haida population centuries ago. (Photo by Farah Nosh/Getty Images)