December 2025
The Cherokee Nation, a sovereign tribal government with more than 450,000 tribal citizens worldwide, has debuted its own language learning app.
With a ceremony inside the Durbin Feeling Language Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, tribal leaders lauded the release of the app as a means to fully resurrect a mother tongue that had almost gone extinct over hundreds of years due to acts of cultural genocide.
“We used to have 100% of our population speaking the language,” Cherokee Nation language program director Howard Paden said. “Now, less than one-half of one percent speaks our language.”
But to move in the right direction, the Cherokees received the help of Kiwa Digital Ltd a renowned dubbing and AI-language company based in New Zealand, founded by Māori individuals that also helped the Cherokee Film Institute in its film and series dubbing projects.
The app uses the Durbin Feeling Cherokee Dictionary as a key source for learning and researching words and phrases.
“At the heart of any culture is the language,” Kiwa Digital managing director Steven Renata said. “Being able to work with any tribe, sub-tribe, first nations…is a real honor and really a real responsibility.”
Source: 2 News
Sources: 2News Oklahoma Fox23 News Tulsa
