Cherokee Nation language department reports new recordings, classroom materials and expanded master-apprentice enrollments

Howard Peyton, a representative of the Cherokee Nation Language Department, told the council the department is expanding its language preservation and teaching work, reporting several concrete metrics and recent projects.

Peyton said the department has 220 participants in its online class, has recorded 1,039 audio files for its language corpus and estimates many recordings contain up to 15,000 words; staff are transcribing those files with timestamps to make them searchable and to anchor language segments in the larger corpus.

"We're getting way up there in numbers," Peyton said, describing the department's effort to transcribe recordings and add time stamps to support read-along materials.

Peyton reported the department has distributed USB drives and developed 1,512 classroom materials. He described a Teacher Institute of Excellence and said the Cherokee Teacher Training Scholarship currently has 11 participants.

The master-apprentice program has 39 students enrolled now, Peyton said, and the department can host up to 48 master-apprentice students at the Kenwood cultural reserve when full. He cited hands-on learning at the reserve’s 1,400 acres — including nut-gathering and other field activities — as part of immersion teaching approaches.

Peyton said the department is finalizing recordings of the books of Matthew and Mark and will add two books to a read‑along New Testament app that highlights Cherokee text in synch with audio. He said that feature aims to help first-language speakers and learners hear Cherokee while following the text in a karaoke-style display.

The language department also reported 51 active speaker service projects, 10 upcoming projects and 53 completed projects. Peyton said roughly 500 people signed in at the department’s recent annual speakers gathering, and he estimated total attendance between about 500 and 600.

Councilors asked how guests learn about the Cherokee Consortium; Peyton said meetings are public and suggested interested people contact the speaker bureau or council staff for notices.

Peyton thanked councilors for support of the department’s annual speaker meeting and said staff would take follow-up questions.