The tribe had a 90 percent literacy rate. The Cherokee syllabary traces back more than 180 years to the original homelands of the tribe before its forced removal on the Trail of Tears.Īt the time of its removal, the Cherokee Nation was well-established with a successful government, an agricultural economy, a tribal religion and spoken and written languages. “And if we don’t have people who speak our language maybe we won’t have people who practice our culture and traditions and maybe we’ll lose our history a bit, and what have we become? We’ll be a gaming corporation, a business portfolio and a healthcare delivery system, and maybe even lose our identity.” “If we don’t, then in a generation we will have gaming, we’ll have businesses, we’ll sell car tags, we’ll have a healthcare system, but we won’t have people speaking our language,” Hoskin said. Students are taught using only the Cherokee language and syllabary. Today, Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi supports nearly 100 K-6 grade students and is the first Oklahoma public school for Cherokee language immersion. In an effort to promote and preserve the language, an immersion school called Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi was founded in 2001 with 26 students and four staff members. “If that stops happening then that distinction starts to melt away.”Īccording to the Cherokee Nation’s official website, the Cherokee Nation Language and Cultural Preservation Act was signed in 1991, which, in part, identifies the language as an important part of Cherokee identity and recognizes the need for its preservation. “If you hear people speaking Cherokee, even if you don’t understand it, it reminds you that we’re a people that have existed since time immemorial… and that we’re distinct people,” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin said.

The youngest fluent Cherokee speaker is 35, which means the language faces potential extinction as older members die. The Cherokee Nation holds onto a crucial piece of tribal culture through its remaining 2,000 native speakers, a majority of whom are 50 and older. “I couldn’t help but swell with pride and realize the distance we have come.” “Who would ever imagine 20 years ago that we would be hearing our own language in a shuttle bus away from our rural areas?” asked Byrd, a former principal chief, current Cherokee Nation Tribal Council member and a Cherokee language speaker. In the early spring of 2018, Speaker Joe Byrd found a seat on the airport shuttle headed to Tulsa International Airport, and over the radio heard a familiar, yet surprising sound: the Cherokee Youth Choir singing in his endangered native tongue.

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