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Saving The Western Shoshone Language

The flag of the Western Shoshone nation flies at a protest against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in 2002.
Associated Press

The flag of the Western Shoshone nation flies at a protest against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in 2002.

Long before states existed, the Western Shoshone people in habited the Great Basin.

Eighteen tribes lived in areas now known as Utah, Idaho, Northern Nevada and Southern California.

And thought they had different ways of life, one thing has bound the Western Shoshone for eons: a common language. 

But that language has been disappearing.

Norm Cavanaugh, director, Shoshone Community Language Initiative; Scott Gavorsky, history professor, Great Basin College

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Kristy Totten is a producer at KNPR's State of Nevada. Previously she was a staff writer at Las Vegas Weekly, and has covered technology, education and economic development for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She's a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.