Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0930588622, Paperback)

Before outsiders arrived, about 100 distinct Indian languages were spoken in California, many of them alive today. Each of these languages represents a unique way of understanding the world and expressing that understanding. _Flutes of Fire_ captures the range, beauty, and delight of this great heritage.

_Flutes of Fire_ examines many different aspects of Indian languages: languages, such as Yana, in which men and women have markedly different ways of speaking; ingenious ways used in each language for counting (some people count in tens, others in fives, others in fours, Yurok has 15 different ways of counting, depending upon what is being counted); discusses how language can retain evidence of ancient migrantions and other events; talks about what different groups are doing to keep languages alive and pass them down to the younger generations.