Chief Ernie Wilson (Niis Wes), 92, sits in his home in Skidegate, one of two Haida communities in the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), the Canadian archipelago south of Alaska, February 20, 2005. 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. Wilson, along with other 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. He is the hereditary Chief of Skedans village, long abandoned when small-pox nearly wiped out the entire Haida population centuries ago.

Mona Jackson, 92, with her daughter, Jada, in her home in Kake, a Tlingit native village in Alaska, 2005. Jackson is a Haida native woman who married into a Tlingit tribe in the 1930s. The Jackson family believes that Mona could die any day. One of her last requests has been to have a fluent Haida speaker come by her bedside and speak with her in her native language as she passes on from this life. Mona Jackson is the only fluent Haida speaker in her village. The Haida Nation has less than 65 people who speak the Haida language, the average age is 70 to 80. Mona Jackson spoke only Haida for the first eleven years of her life. Her family originated in Masset in the Queen Charlotte Islands, and moved to Alaska in 1923, fearing the outbreak of tuberculosis(TB) on the Queen Charlotte Islands. Jackson was forced to learn English at Sheldon Jackson missionary school in Sitka, Alaska, where northwest coast natives were often punished for speaking their native languages.

Master and Apprentice. Dr.Erma Lawrence speaks Haida with Haida language apprentice and linguist, Jordan Lachler, in her home in Ketchikan, in southeast Alaska, 2005. Less than 65 people speak the Haida language, the average age is 70 to 80.

Woodrow Morrison, 92, sits in his home in Hydaburg, a Haida community on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska, 2005. The Haida Nation has less than 65 people who speak the Haida language, the average age is 70 to 80.

Master and Apprentice. Phyllis Almquist, 79, speaks Haida in her home with her Haida language apprentice Linda Schrack in Ketchikan, in southeast Alaska, 2005. Almquist, a retired teacher, brought Alaskan Native Culture into the elementary schools of Alaska. Less than 65 people speak the Haida language, the average age is 70 to 80.

Dr.Erma Lawrence looks over Haida language notes before a language class in Ketchikan, in southeast Alaska, 2005.

Haida language speaker Alma Cook, prepares lunch in her home in Hydaburg, a Haida community on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska, 2005. Less than 65 people speak the Haida language, the average age is 70 to 80. There are only four Haida speakers in Hydaburg.