Apple is known for innovation, but its latest project connects deeply to cultural history. Through its Community Education Initiative, Apple has partnered with the Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma City University to preserve an endangered native language. Currently, there are fewer than 1,500 fluent speakers out of a global population of over 480,000 Cherokee people. To change this, classrooms are deploying iPad and Mac hardware to train the next generation of fluent speakers.
At the Cherokee Immersion School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade use iPads to build language skills with confidence. Traditional vocabulary lists are upgraded as students record their own voices to practice crucial pronunciations. Because a single incorrect tone completely alters a word’s meaning in the Cherokee language, these instant audio playback features provide an invaluable self-assessment tool. Students can now seamlessly review their language assignments both in the classroom and at home.
“The technology that we utilize with Apple has allowed us to take everything that we really are trying to achieve here… and use that same technology to make it relevant to the young people that are learning here.” – Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation’s Principal Chief
Creativity and advanced technology merge when students transition to complex digital storytelling and app development. In the classroom, younger learners use Keynote on iPad to illustrate traditional stories and then narrate them using iMovie. To understand the medicinal properties of local plants, students are even drafting a custom plant-identification app. They use their iPads to capture environmental images, build a custom machine learning model, and assemble the final project within Apple’s Swift Playgrounds.
The language preservation track continues seamlessly at nearby Sequoyah High School, where students blend historical art forms with modern digital design canvas tools. In conversational Cherokee classes, students photograph physical baskets woven by community elders and use those images as design blueprints in the Freeform app. Over in the school’s STREAM Lab, students utilize the iPad and Apple Pencil to sketch custom ribbon skirts before hand-sewing the final garments.
Digital media production also plays a major role in safeguarding these historical community assets. Using Mac computers and GarageBand, high school students regularly record and edit “Stories of Sequoyah,” a student-run cultural podcast. The studio setup allows them to interview local community leaders and elders who share multi-generational memories. This hands-on multimedia experience teaches valuable modern software skills while purposefully documenting an oral history that might otherwise be lost.
This modern digital ecosystem builds directly upon the historical literacy innovations of the Cherokee people. Over 200 years ago, a Cherokee warrior named Sequoyah invented a revolutionary 86-character written syllabary to represent every spoken syllable of the language.
What do you think about using modern technology to preserve endangered languages and cultures? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
