Languages go extinct when there are no speakers of that language left. When a language dies, we lose history and culture that the language belongs to. From the reading, in order to help preserve a language, creating a pool of speakers large enough to maintain its existence seems to be the key. One way linguists can help to preserve a language is by helping to create a dictionary for a weakening language. I think any form of public exposure of these rather "hidden" languages can help to preserve the language in the future.
I think a "dead" language definitely can be brought back to life just like the Siletz language as long as there are some resources to work with. Nowadays, language studies are a lot more common than before. As long as there are people interested in studying the language and the speaker pool continues to grow, its language, culture, and history can be preserved. Like dictionaries, any form of documentations can be used in researches and studies of that language, but those documentations are necessary for the process to start. In addition, it will take a long time for the speaker pool to grow and may take multiple generations, but it is possible.
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