Language department: 971 speakers recorded for dictionary project; Apple keyboard and teacher programs underway
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Summary
Howard Payton reported to the Culture Committee that the Cherokee Saving the Voices Dictionary Project has recorded 971 speakers, the Nation is developing a Cherokee phonetic keyboard with Apple, and several teacher training and master‑apprentice initiatives are in progress.
Howard Payton, speaking for the Cherokee Nation Language Department, told the Culture Committee the Nation has recorded 971 speakers for its Cherokee Saving the Voices Dictionary Project and is building teams to transcribe those recordings.
Payton said the department is time‑stamping transcriptions so at‑risk words can be identified and added to the dictionary and explained work on digital resources, including an app feature that will highlight words in the Book of Praise as they are played. He said the department is also reviewing older documents, including materials from the 1830s, and arranging for speakers to read and record words from those documents.
Payton described several training and support programs. He said a teacher institute and scholarship program produced a few graduates this year from Northeastern State University and that a Master‑Apprentice cohort launched in March to focus on district classroom needs. He explained a Teacher Institute of Excellence that temporarily places substitutes in classrooms while pulling teachers out for concentrated training to improve second‑language instruction.
On technology partnerships, Payton said the department has partnered with Apple on a Cherokee phonetic keyboard that “will be in all the new Apple, computers,” and is working with Google on AI foundations but remains cautious because “our language is sacred.” He noted the department has worked with Unicode and linguists in Silicon Valley.
Payton reported program counts during the reporting period: 127 participants in at‑large community language classes (Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Eugene), reservation courses that began in late March and continue through summer depending on scheduling, an online Cherokee 4 course coming this summer, addition of new staff including an administrative assistant and speaker service specialist, nine new mobile homes provided to Cherokee speakers during the reporting period, and completion of 105 projects.
Why it matters: Payton framed these items as part of a broad language‑preservation strategy that combines recording, transcription, classroom capacity building and technology to support Cherokee speakers and learners. Quotes in this article are drawn from the committee meeting and attributed to speakers present at the meeting.
