"Yet the extinctions cannot be stopped, for the most part. Trying to teach people to speak their ancestral languages, for example, will almost never get far beyond the starting gate. Some years ago, I spent some weeks teaching Native Americans their ancestral language. To the extent that the exercise helped give them a feeling of connection to their ancestors, it was time well spent.
However, it was clear that there was no way that they would learn more than some words and expressions. Languages are hard to learn for adults, especially ones as different from English as Native American ones. In Pomo, the verb goes at the end of the sentence. There are sounds it's hard to make when you're not born to them. For busy people with jobs and families, how far were they ever going to be able to get mastering a language whose word for eye is ‘uyqh abe?"
I see this when I go to Ireland, The government has been trying to promote gaelic for years..with a notable lack of success.
At least in Ireland there are some enclaves in the west where Gaelic is still spoken as a first language. I don't think there are any left in Scotland. I was fairly fluent back in the 80s when we visited the West Highlands, but I had a hard time finding somebody to talk with!
The only villages that seem to have success in utilizing their own language are the ones completely cut off from white man's Alaska. They are able to preserve their culture at expense of good & bad of modern world; often they choose this route too.
Alcohol has a way of making it into every village, no matter dry or wet. So you also find that some of villages that suffer the greatest problems (child abuse, violence, deaths from alcohol probs) are the ones that remain cut off from white world; no economy; nothing to do to keep busy; many of members suffer from alcohol addiction. Dying places.