The article describes and analyses the international and Russian practices of preserving and reproducing the endangered ethnic languages. Special attention is paid to the preservation practices of the languages of the small- numbered indigenous peoples of the North inhabiting the Krasnoyarsk Krai. The research is based on the system approach method. The research results demonstrate that due to the gradual destruction of the language transfer tradition, the “artificial” preservation practices are the most relevant for the ethnic languages. They include the creation of modern coursebooks for the languages of the small-numbered indigenous peoples of the North, based on the latest methods of ethnic language learning and teaching; publishing children’s literature in the ethnic languages; linguistic documentation of languages; application of the modern information technology, including the creation of the Internet portals dedicated to the language and culture of the small-numbered indigenous peoples of the North.