Cherokee Nation unveiled in a video presentation on Monday some of the work being done on the Durbin Feeling Language Center, which will house all of the tribe’s language programs under one roof in Tahlequah.
The old Cherokee casino is undergoing a $5 million renovation as part of a broader, $16 million initiative to save the Cherokee language announced last year.
There will be more than classrooms and offices there.
"This new center also has features like our own cafeteria, our own gymnasium, our own sound booth and equipment, our own vault that will store our ancient documents, and our own baby immersion and toddler immersion," said Cherokee Nation Language Department Executive Director Howard Paden.
Cherokee elders will be invited to live at five houses being built on the language center grounds.
"It was important to Durbin Feeling that our language efforts be more than just classrooms and offices. He really wanted a sense of community, and that’s what we’re trying to build here with these homes right next to the language center," said Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
The language center is named for linguist Durbin Feeling, who wrote the Cherokee dictionary and developed digital versions of the language along with teaching it to as many people as possible to help preserve it. His wife, Chris, said they drove past the future language center several times before he died in August at age 74.
"He knew something was going to be done about it finally, and that was his dream, just to carry on and don’t let it die," Chris Feeling said.
Hoskin said Feeling did more to save the Cherokee language than anyone since Sequoyah, who developed the Cherokee syllabary.
There are only about 2,000 Cherokee first-language speakers remaining.
