Thursday, December 11, 2025

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Photo courtesy Cherokee Nation / Facebook

In Tahlequah, Okla. this week, Cherokee language speakers and officials unveiled a Cherokee language dictionary app.

They were joined by representatives of Kiwa Digital Limited, who developed the app based on a Cherokee dictionary 50 years ago, created by Native speaker Durbin Feeling.

Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Junior said the new app will allow every Cherokee family to carry the resource in their pockets, and represented the tribe’s sovereignty and knowledge, as well as their commitment to keep the Cherokee language strong for generations to come.

“For the last five centuries, our language and our culture has been under assault, has been eroded, and that’s the story of Indigenous languages around the world. Many of which the languages that have been lost and that we will lose in the future. Many of which are a part of history books, about languages that once were.”

Chief Hoskin said he expected the app to become more than a simple curiosity for tribal members, and will be especially embraced by children and other youth.

The Cherokee Language Dictionary App includes translations for more than 6-thousand Cherokee words, with audio recordings, grammar notes, and phonetics.

Under my direction, the soldiers who fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee will keep their medals.

This decision is final. Their place in history is settled. pic.twitter.com/klQlB6MZ6l

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) September 25, 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an unusual speech in September to top brass in which he railed against “woke” ideology and hyped the recently rebranded Department of War.

He also weighed in on a long-simmering controversy involving the so-called Battle of Wounded Knee which occurred on December 29, 1890, where hundreds of Lakotas were killed by the U.S. Army.

Many consider that conflict a massacre – and have called for the soldiers to be stripped of their Medals of Honor.

Sec. Hegseth dismissed the idea as political correctness run amok and released a video defending the soldiers and their medals.

As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, it was a painful message for tribes throughout the country.

“Under my direction, we’re making it clear, without hesitation, that the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals.”

Although bipartisan efforts in Congress to rescind those Medals of Honor go back decades, only a president has the legal authority – beyond the Pentagon itself – to undo that distinction.

“This decision is now final, and their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate. We salute their memory, we honor their service, and we will never forget what they did.”

In what would be the final chapter of the Army’s century-long “Indian Wars” campaign, as many as 300 Lakotas were killed at Wounded Knee in South Dakota – while at least 25 U.S. soldiers died.

A rifle shot rang out when troops tried disarming a surrendering encampment on December 29, 1890.

In that confusion, the mass slaughter of mostly unarmed men, women and children ensued.

Army general Nelson Appleton Miles penned in private, “I have never heard of a more, brutal cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee.”

To this day, there is still no official death count.

Hegseth’s comments came a few weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order, rebranding his agency as the Department of War.

“This is something we thought long and hard about. We’ve been talking about it for months, Pete and I … I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”

From the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza, the same dynamics of Wounded Knee – of civilians being killed by conquering military forces – continue to play out all around the globe, according to David Martinez.

“And I would go further and say that what you see in contemporary American foreign policy was forged in America’s battles with Indian people.”

Tune in tomorrow to hear how the history of Wounded Knee continues for many Native people today.

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