From 1999 to 2001, the Canadian poet Robert Bringhurst published three volumes of translations from classical Haida, the indigenous language of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the northern British Columbia coast. His work touched off a fierce debate over the relationship of a translator to the culture from which he draws his material. Exploring the underlying linguistic ecology reveals relation of material and discursive power that are implicated in the impending loss of Haida as a spoken language, and may be unavoidable for any English translation. As a contrasting example, literary translation into Esperanto may position the translator in a more sustainable ecological context.