Cherokee Language Learners Unite Generations with iPad and Mac
Within the hallowed halls of the Cherokee Immersion School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, a vibrant energy permeates as young scholars traverse from room to room.
Catering to students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, this immersion institution — an extension of the Durbin Feeling Language Center — is dedicated to fostering the next cohort of fluent Cherokee language speakers.
“They are truly language warriors,” proclaims Erlinda “Daksi” Soap, a fifth-grade educator at the immersion school.
“Our objective at Cherokee Nation and the Durbin Feeling Language Center is to unearth our future Cherokee leaders, individuals committed to perpetuating the language and nurturing its growth.”
Currently, the number of fluent Cherokee speakers has dwindled to fewer than 1,500 within a global population exceeding 480,000 Cherokee individuals.
Apple has extended its support to the Cherokee Nation, alongside collaborators at Oklahoma City University (OCU), to rejuvenate the language and cultural heritage.
Through its Community Education Initiative, Apple provides iPads and Macs to educators and students at the Cherokee Immersion School and the adjacent Sequoyah High School.
“The technology employed through Apple enables us to realize our ambition — the preservation and revitalization of Cherokee language and culture — while making it resonant with the youth who are learning,” asserts Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of Cherokee Nation.
Educators such as Soap, Tyler Teague, and Jennie Pruitt have been appointed as technology ambassadors via this initiative, participating in training sessions conducted by Apple and OCU to intertwine creativity and coding into their curricula, thereby enhancing their outreach to younger generations.
In Soap’s classroom, an affirmation mirror establishes an inspiring atmosphere, welcoming students with Cherokee affirmations like “I am smart, I am loved, and I am strong.” The students are actively preparing for an imminent Cherokee Language Challenge Bowl.
“Initially, they drafted words on paper using pencils, but now, they record their own voices to study these words both at school and at home,” shares Soap.
Utilizing iPads for self-recording vocabulary, students can bolster their pronunciation confidence. “In the Cherokee language, every phonetic nuance holds significance,” notes Soap. “A single mispronounced sound can alter the meaning entirely.”
In a nearby classroom, Teague’s students are finalizing an animated storytelling assignment. Having illustrated their stories using Keynote on iPads, they subsequently narrate their tales through iMovie.
Storytelling remains a fundamental element in transmitting language and culture across generations. Additionally, students are developing an app to identify local plant species while documenting their medicinal attributes.
To lay the groundwork for this application, they are drafting the project in Keynote and capturing images from their surroundings to create a custom machine learning model. Ultimately, the app will materialize utilizing Apple’s Swift Playground.
Keynote has proven invaluable as students catalog the name of each plant alongside its image, while also recording their voice.
If I pronounce a word differently than their grandmother does, I encourage them to record her version, for her wisdom is paramount, explains Teague. “Our language encompasses variations due to tonal differences inherent within diverse communities.”
“Utilizing the iPad for Cherokee typography aligns with our goals of enhancing literacy,” he adds.
“The iPad is an exceptional instrument, revolutionizing experiences for all users,” affirms Hoskin. “It encapsulates everything we’ve aimed to build, readily accessible to the young Cherokee.”
At Sequoyah High School, a newly established immersion track supports students transitioning from the Cherokee Immersion School. Sophomore Olivia Daugherty, a graduate of the immersion school in 2024, continues her linguistic and cultural pursuits in Pruitt’s class.
“I had fears regarding the potential loss of my language and culture, concerned that my community might fade away,” reflects Daugherty.
“Sequoyah appealed to me precisely because of its Cherokee language offerings, which ignited my interest in conversational Cherokee.”
Daugherty reminisces about her early exposure to language and weaving. “While cruising with my dad, he would teach me to count in Cherokee and identify animals,” she recalls.
“Then, I enrolled in immersion alongside my sister, where my commitment to the language deepened.”
During the current Conversational Cherokee class, Daugherty is engaged in basket weaving with elders. “Art serves as my primary medium for expressing my language and culture,” she affirms.
“It commences with our origin story, centered around the first fire,” explains Pruitt, as the lesson begins in her weaving class.
“Fire was essential. Different animals were dispatched, culminating in the water spider retrieving the flame through her weaving.”
Daugherty finds solace in the practice, reflecting on her childhood teachings from elder women who imparted their stories and skills. “It feels more like sharing memories than mere instruction,” she explains.
Subsequent to storytelling sessions, Pruitt instructs her pupils to venture around the school and their homes, photographing baskets with their iPads. These images serve as a foundation for crafting their custom designs in Freeform on iPads.
“Utilizing the iPad enhances opportunities for video and audio recordings, imparts podcasting skills, and facilitates report writing in Keynote,” remarks Pruitt.
“Accessing our Cherokee font on iPads enables us to incorporate text into our videos and audio seamlessly.”
Within the STREAM (science, technology, research, engineering, art, and math) Lab, traditional ribbon skirts dangle from racks adjacent to Mac computers, large-format printers, and sewing machines. Students employ iPads and Apple Pencils to design skirts before hand-sewing them.
The lab also functions as a studio for the student-led podcast, Stories of Sequoyah. Teacher Melissa Fourkiller guides a group of students as they interview Sam Horsechief, a community elder whose coaching tenure began in 1987. They are recording and editing audio for an impending episode.
“In the STREAM classroom, sewing, storytelling, and digital media converge,” remarks Fourkiller. Students create traditional items while grasping their cultural significance, leveraging Apple tools like GarageBand on Mac computers to produce podcasts that respectfully transmit and preserve Cherokee narratives.
Through these initiatives, they cultivate creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving abilities while employing technology intentionally.
“Absent Apple products and our current endeavors, the pace of language revitalization would be substantially slower,” asserts Bryan Warner, Cherokee Nation’s deputy principal chief and former educator.
Storytelling and technology have historically intersected for the Cherokee. Two centuries ago, Sequoyah, a Cherokee warrior, devised the written syllabary, a groundbreaking instrument for documenting and articulating the language in writing for the first time.
Sequoyah created 86 characters that encapsulate the sounds and syllables of the spoken language, paving the path for the first bilingual print newspaper and, more recently, facilitating the incorporation of syllabary keyboards on students’ Mac, iPad, and iPhone devices.
“A core aspect of Cherokee identity lies in actively ensuring that our language and culture endure,” states Roy Boney Jr., a Cherokee artist who collaborated with Apple engineers to integrate the syllabary into Mac, iPad, and iPhone. “In earlier generations, this knowledge was naturally transmitted.”
“Having the syllabary accessible on modern devices like the iPhone and Mac laptops resonates with our historical narrative,” remarks Hoskin.
“What once appeared as a historical anecdote is now at the forefront of technological advancements on our smartphones. That represents true empowerment.”
This empowerment is firmly placed in the hands of dedicated language warriors such as Daugherty.
“My niece is a first-language speaker, one of the very few in recent times,” shares Daugherty. “She stands as a testament to our revival.”
Source link: Apple.com.
