Tribes in Oregon are trying to preserve their languages before they are lost forever.

Only two people can speak Kiksht, the language of the Wasco Tribe, one of the Warm Springs Tribes. Radine "Deanie" Johnson is working with her grandmother, one of the two speakers, on recordings and other documents.

"I think if we didn't have our languages, our customs, traditions, that we wouldn't be considered native Americans," Johnson tells The Christian Science Monitor.

On the Siletz Reservation, only five people speak Athabaskan. Bud Lane, a member of the Siletz Tribes is compiling an online dictionary of the language.

The 40 languages spoken in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia are in danger of disappearing without new speakers.

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Tribes strive to save native tongues (The Christian Science Monitor 5/23)