In the hallways of the Cherokee Immersion School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, a quiet revolution is underway. Students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade are learning to speak a language that fewer than 1,500 people in the world still speak fluently — and Apple technology is helping make it happen as iPad and Mac revitalize Cherokee language, the iPhone giant reported in a new feature story Thursday.
“The technology that we utilize with Apple has allowed us to take everything that we really are trying to achieve here, which is the perpetuation and the revitalization of Cherokee language and culture, and use that same technology to make it relevant to the young people that are learning here,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation’s principal chief.
How iPad and Mac revitalize Cherokee language and culture
The school is part of the Durbin Feeling Language Center, serving a Cherokee Nation population of more than 480,000 people worldwide. Through its Community Education Initiative, Apple provides iPad and Mac to students and teachers at the immersion school and nearby Sequoyah High School, Apple wrote in its expansive new feature article. And it also partners with Oklahoma City University to train teachers as technology ambassadors.
Students become language warriors
Photo: Apple
Fifth grade teacher Erlinda “Daksi” Soap describes her students as “language warriors” on a mission to carry the Cherokee language into the future. iPad has transformed how they study: rather than writing vocabulary words on paper, students now record themselves reciting words aloud. That enables them to practice pronunciation at home and at school.
“In Cherokee language, every sound is so important,” Soap said. “One sound off, and you’re saying a completely different word.”
Fellow teacher Tyler Teague has his students illustrating stories in Keynote. Then they record narration in iMovie. That helps carry forward the oral storytelling tradition that has long been central to passing Cherokee culture between generations.
Students also work toward building a plant identification app using machine learning and Apple’s coding-language app, Swift Playgrounds. The app in development documents plant species and their medicinal properties in the Cherokee language.
Technology bridges past and present
Photo: Apple
At Sequoyah High School, students in Jennie Pruitt’s Conversational Cherokee class photograph traditional baskets and then design their own in Freeform on iPad. Elsewhere, a student-run podcast called Stories of Sequoyah, produced in GarageBand on Mac, captures interviews with community elders — preserving voices and stories that might otherwise be lost.
The connection between Cherokee people and written language runs deep. Over 200 years ago, a warrior named Sequoyah created a written syllabary of 86 characters representing the sounds of the spoken language. It was a breakthrough that enabled the nation’s first bilingual newspaper. Today, that same syllabary appears natively on Mac, iPad and iPhone keyboards, thanks to work by Cherokee artist Roy Boney Jr. alongside Apple engineers.
“Having the syllabary on the iPhone or on a Mac laptop really takes us back in time,” said Hoskin. “Now it’s suddenly on the leading edge of technology on our phones.”
For sophomore Olivia Daugherty, who graduated from the immersion school and continues her studies at Sequoyah, the work is deeply personal. Her niece became one of the language’s first native speakers in a very long time — a sign that the effort is working.
Read the full story on Apple’s website.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
