Speaking of American Indians, I attended a maritime event sponsered by the Conferderatred Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
They escorted our PT boat in
. They had a guy there who was working to preserve and teach their language. The language itself sounds like klingon but it was neat to see the big grammar and dictionary they had of the their languages. The Pacific Northwest tribes were pretty wealthy, due to the fish and fur trade.
http://www.grandronde.org/