As Native American languages increasingly face extinction, a group of Norman High School students decided to speak up.

Thirteen aspiring filmmakers interviewed elders from various tribes for the documentary entitled “When It’s Gone, It’s Gone,” filmed in two days and edited in one night last year.

The elders shared one ominous message: “When the language is gone, you are gone.”

Ninety percent of indigenous U.S. languages will be gone in 10 years, according to an estimate from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The project began with the Norman High Native American Club entering a language fair at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The group, which got an extension to submit the video two weeks late to complete all the interviews with tribal elders, won first place at the fair for “When It’s Gone.”

The video was uploaded to Google, and has since been linked to various Native American Web sites, said Mosiah Bluecloud, linguistics sophomore and the video’s editor.

Judy Blake, one of the group’s sponsors, said she gets requests from teachers hoping to use the video in their classrooms as a teaching tool. It has even been used in a linguistics class at OU.

“I hope it keeps on rolling and catching people’s eye,” Bluecloud said.

The elders are looking to this generation of Native Americans to learn the language and keep it alive, Bluecloud said. Once the language is gone, native people will have lost what makes them native, Bluecloud said.

“Language is the core of all our cultural identity. Language is more important than most people think,” said Jacob Tsotigh III, president of the Norman High Native American Club.

Bluecloud said he hopes the video will inspire young Native Americans to learn about their native languages.

“I just hope they see it and go to any elder they come in contact with and listen to every word they say,” Bluecloud said.

Bluecloud said the experience encouraged him to switch his major to linguistics. Bluecloud said he wants to help tribes set up schools where children are taught in tribal languages.

Tsotigh said making the film gave him a desire to learn Kiowa, and he wants to take language courses in Kiowa once he enters college.

Marcus Briggs-Cloud, co-sponsor of the Native American Club, stated in an e-mail he hopes those who see the video will do something to revitalize Native American languages.

Briggs-Cloud said being sympathetic about the death of native languages is not enough to keep them alive: Native Americans must use them.