Like many other indigenous languages, the Cherokee language has lost native speakers over the years.
However, on Dec. 3, language preservation efforts got a boost from who else but the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
2 News Oklahoma’s Douglas Braff listened to one woman who was discouraged from learning it as a child.
“When I was growing up, I knew I was Cherokee Indian,” Christina Stiles recalled. “But it was kind of frowned upon, so they kind of pushed everything aside, and I didn't get to learn a lot of my history.”
“Basically, they were scared to let people know we were Indian,” she added. “So, it was kind of, you know, ‘don't tell anybody.’ And so, I wasn't allowed to learn anything about it.”
Now that she’s grown up, Stiles is making up for lost time and making sure the language of her ancestors isn’t lost.
“When I got older, I started looking into it, learning about it,” she told us. “And now, I'm trying to make sure that my kids know about it."
"I'm not ashamed of it. I don't think we should be,” Stiles added.
She and her family are preparing to start Cherokee language classes soon.
The Cherokee language has some fascinating qualities.
For example, Cherokee — like Japanese — uses a syllabary writing system instead of an alphabet like English, Russian, or Hindi. In a syllabary, characters represent syllables instead of individual vowels and consonants as alphabets do.
Stiles said preservation is especially critical right now because the number of fluent, native speakers is shrinking.
“We lost a lot of first language speakers during COVID-19, during the pandemic, at a larger rate,” Cherokee Nation Deputy Chief Bryan Warner told 2 News. “But we typically lose about 75 a year. With the median age, you're getting up in there, into the seventies.”
Because an estimated 1,500 first-language Cherokee speakers remain, Warner said, “We have to be very calculating. We have to be very strategic. We have to be very forward with what we're going to do and get that momentum going.”
“We're not preserving this language so much as we are perpetuating the language,” he emphasized.
Their ongoing efforts received outside help on Dec. 3. The USDA announced $997,943 in grant money to help the Cherokee Nation teach the Cherokee language to more than 28,000 Oklahoma public school students.
When asked what it would mean to him to have more people speaking his ancestor’s tongue, Warner replied, “Oh, it means everything.”
“That's the richest part of our culture, our history, our heritage, is our language, that's what signifies that we are Cherokee in so many ways,” he added. “So, that's always been the heartbeat.”
The USDA grant announcement was also welcome news to Stiles, who said, “I feel like it's important to know your culture, and you can't really know it in true detail without the language.”
The nearly $1 million in USDA grant funding for Cherokee language preservation was part of a broader $2 million grant. The Tahlequah Area Habitat for Humanity also received money, as 2 News Oklahoma’s Naomi Keitt reported.
This follows the Choctaw Nation on Nov. 18 receiving a USDA grant for promoting the Chahta language.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
