Kevin Connelly, an Iroquois linguist in the American Indian Program, uses photography, video and virtual reality software to capture a sense of natural world space so that it can be incorporated into second-language acquisition curricula.
Linguists agree that languages are disappearing at an alarming rate all over the world.
Before Columbus led the European invasion of North America, there were probably more than 250 languages spoken in what is now United States territory, according to an article in The Washington Post . That number is down to about 190, and at least three-quarters of them are in imminent danger of dying out. The Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk peoples populated what is now New York state and parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Their confederacy, the League of Peace, is the oldest and strongest alliance ever formed among native Americans. Connelly, who was born into the Eel Clan, is passionate when he explains why it is important to keep the language alive.