Cherokee Language

When the Cherokee nation received shipments of the covid-19 vaccine, tribal leaders made sure that fluent speakers of the Cherokee language were the first to get the shot. That’s because there are only about 2,000 people alive today who speak Cherokee fluently. The tribes say Cherokee speakers are dying faster than new speakers are being developed. Benjamin Frey, a professor of linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokees—and he’s on a mission to ensure the Cherokee language survives. (Originally aired February 11th, 2020)