Cherokee: “From Leaves to Pixels”

“For generations, the Cherokee Nation has turned to tech to preserve its language with innovative efforts that have come via the Cherokee Phoenix, iPhone and Facebook.”-Art Coulson, Native People Magazine

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Talking Leaves to Pixels by artist Roy Boney-Native Peoples Magazine.

Excerpt: Cherokees Keep Up With the Latest in Tech…By Art Coulson, Native Peoples Magazine

“When my daughters and I swap emails on our phones, my messages end with the standard Apple iPhone signature, “Sent from my iPhone.” The version of the signature on my phone however: ᏂᏓᎴᏅᏓ ᎠᏌᎹᏗ ᏗᏟᏃᎮᏗ.

It looks a bit different from the default signature installed by Apple because it’s in Cherokee, one of more than 50 languages—and the first Native American one—installed on the iPhone out of the box.

The Cherokee syllabary syllabary was invented by Sequoyah. Photo- Wikipedia

The syllabary, now two centuries old, was the first written version of a Native American language developed by one man—Cherokee blacksmith Sequoyah—and since his creation of the written system, there have been a series of additional firsts for the language-like first Native American language to be printed in a bilingual newspaper, the first to be integrated into iPhones and iPads, and the first to be an option in Google’s search engine.

The most recent project of the Language Program was to work with the Commonwealth Braille and Talking Book Cooperative to convert the 86 symbols of the syllabary into the raised dots of the Braille language for the blind and visually impaired.

A computer keyboard incorporates the Cherokee syllabary. By Rolando Coto

“We provided copies of our Cherokee syllabary, sample text and other items to be able to make Braille in Cherokee a reality,” Boney says. “We want to stay in the forefront by offering the Cherokee language on as many written tools as possible to preserve and protect our Native tongue.”