Buckling beneath the growing global culture, indigenous people (groups rooted to a particular place by history, legend, and language) are fast becoming endangered people. With each group that is uprooted or assimilated, a culture vanishes.

Our best yardstick of cultural diversity is language, and the measurements are coming up short. Linguists estimate that every two weeks a language dies, taking with it unique ways of thinking, communicating, and living—and generations of irreplaceable knowledge.

Through images you will only see here, we offer a window on cultures you may never see again: the Ariaal of Kenya, the Chipaya of Bolivia, and the Penan of Malaysia.

For more on these cultures, see the August 1999 issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine.