Cherokee Nation celebrates International Mother Language Day
WHAT: International Mother Language Day Celebration
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 21
10 a.m.
WHERE: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa
777 W. Cherokee St., Catoosa
Sequoyah Room
WHO: S. Joe Crittenden, Deputy Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Chuck Hoskin, Chief of Staff of the Cherokee Nation
Roy Boney, Cherokee Language Program Manager for the Cherokee Nation
Alfred Hellstern, Senior International Project Engineer at Microsoft
Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilors
Cherokee Nation translation staff
Microsoft officials
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. —The Cherokee Nation will celebrate the Cherokee language on Friday in observance of International Mother Language Day.
International Mother Language Day was created by the United Nations and is celebrated each Feb. 21 to showcase language diversity.
Cherokee Nation officials will recognize its team of 17 translators who work year-round to preserve, protect and promote the Cherokee language. Officials with Microsoft will also attend and honor the tribe for its recent project to add Cherokee on Microsoft’s Office Online.
“The Cherokee language is one of the most important aspects of who we are as a tribe, and many elements of our culture are contained in our language,” Cherokee Language Program Manager Roy Boney said. “Our language offers more than communication. It transmits cultural knowledge and a mode of thinking that is uniquely Cherokee. To lose our language would mean a huge loss of part of our heritage, and the goal of the Cherokee Nation Language Program is to ensure our language lives on for future generations.”
While the spoken Cherokee language has existed for centuries, a reading and writing system called the Cherokee syllabary was invented by Cherokee statesman Sequoyah in 1821. It is still used today by Native speakers and students at the Cherokee Immersion Charter School in Tahlequah.
The Cherokee Nation is one of the few tribes with a dedicated translation staff. The translation team works with the largest technology companies, museums and universities to translate everything from documents to archived letters to technology programs into Cherokee.
