Rodolfo M Vega wrote:
Yes, most situations are like that in Amerindian languages, and the process to create a more accepted alphabets is a political rather than "academic" one. But now, many Amerindian peoples have intellectual native speakers, many are writers and many are trained in linguistics, so the process to create an alphabet from the native perspective is more than possible, and far desirable, for the reasons you say. For example, Aymara already agreed on an alphabet for all Aymara, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, and they are in a process to create an Academy of the Aymara language, with representation from all these countries. Similar process I understand is happening in Maya, and in less extent in Mapuche (here, the competing alphabets differ only in a couple representation of specific phoneme). Soon or later, seeing new opportunities for information sharing (such as a Wikipedia in their own language, which is now under consideration in many groups) all Amerindian people will agree on an alphabet for their specific language.
The languages that you mention have a fairly large population. Some of the languages from mountainous areas may not have the critical mass needed to keep them alive. Most of the native speakers are elderly, and in that regard these oldsters are no different from their counterparts in larger cultures for whom computers do not fall within their comfort zone. Just getting a minimal user interface in their language is a considerable challenge.
Ec