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Cherokee Nation Language Department unveils apps, dictionary and land‑based curriculum to preserve Cherokee
Summary
Language Department lead Howard Peyton described a land‑based curriculum, large-scale audio transcription and a dictionary built from timestamped recordings; he outlined apps for parents and baby‑immersion supports and said speaker services will coordinate with housing projects when needed.
Mr. Howard Peyton of the Cherokee Nation Language Department presented a multi-part plan to expand language preservation through curriculum, digital tools and speaker services.
Peyton described a land‑based cultural curriculum that integrates the traditional calendar, star knowledge and everyday subjects such as science and math, saying the material will be developed into books, animations (with Cherokee Films) and classroom tools. “Our team is really working on a land‑based cultural type curriculum for our school…you just walk in and you just know that you’re doing right,” Peyton said.
On the Nation’s 'Saving Voices' and dictionary project, Peyton said the department has completed timestamping the New Testament recordings and is using those timestamps to build a searchable dictionary. He characterized the dictionary as capturing extensive nuance, saying it will include what he described in the meeting as “21,000 different nuances of language.” Peyton also estimated the archive includes about 1,200 hours of recent interviews and earlier archives that could total thousands more hours; he said the total corpus amounts to millions of words and that large‑scale transcription remains a significant technical challenge.
Peyton described app development that will support lexical autofill for translated words, a parent app to help caregivers reinforce their children’s learning at home, and a baby‑immersion parent app to support prenatal and early childhood language exposure.
During Q&A, Councilor Danny Callison asked whether speaker services were involved in remodeling homes for first‑language speakers; Peyton said yes and explained the department coordinates with the housing authority depending on job size. Councilor Shot Pouch asked whether previously approved applicants would need to submit a new application for home improvements; Peyton said the Nation and housing authority are working toward a universal application and that federal funds will be prioritized when appropriate, with general funds supplementing other needs.
Peyton offered to meet with councilors after the session for follow‑up and emphasized the scale of transcription and app integration needed to make the dictionary and related tools broadly usable.
