There's an app for that

The Cherokee Nation is, like many Native nations, working to keep their language alive. (The article requires a subscription, which our library has; if you are on a campus computer, it shouldn't require a login; if you're off-campus, logging in by clicking on the link here:

From the 1870s well into the 20th century, Cherokee and other native languages were ­suppressed by the federal government, which—among other tactics—sent some American Indian children away to boarding schools, at which they were to be assimilated into American society... "My mother still has scars on her hands" from being punished for speaking Cherokee as a schoolgirl, Mr. Wolfe said. Because of such policies, he said, "a couple of generations grew up without the language." Among his 60 or so first cousins, he is the only one who's worked to learn more than the rudiments of the language

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Apple evidently offers the Cherokee syllabary on its computers, and now offers it on the iPhone as well, so students can e-mail and now text in Cherokee - fantastic! (This sounds like a linguistics dissertation waiting to happen.)