ASL thrives: ISL dies (and gets pushed out of the way)

That the way it goes but does it need to be like that? The extinction of a language by fate where it loses out to more popular and used language. So, does abandoning one sign language in favor of another more popular sign language be seen as a kind of eugenics in the works? Here in this article about John Woodenlegs in his effort to preserve his sign language history.

James Woodenlegs first learned to communicate using Plains Indians Sign Language from his family, when he was growing up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. Known as "hand talk" or "sign talk," the language has been used by both deaf and hearing Indians from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico for at least 200 years, possibly much longer.

Be sure to visit this website and there is a very interesting video that has an old black and white video of an indian signing (with captions) sponsored by the National Science Foundation.