Although composed of over 392,000 citizens across America, the Cherokee Nation faces hardships as their language and culture has eroded over the years.

Dispossession, disease and the lack of education in school systems have all contributed to these difficulties, testing the Nation’s resiliency throughout the centuries. Two thousand fluent Cherokee speakers remain, and a growing chorus of voices are calling for help in preserving Cherokee language and culture.

This year, the winner of Amazon Web Service Inc.’s “Most Impactful Nonprofit Partner” went to Presidio Inc.’s Cloud Solutions Group for its assistance in using solutions such as virtual classrooms and an open-world mobile game aimed at teaching youth the Cherokee language.

“Between Inage’i, the 3D mobile open-world game, and the virtual classroom platform, it’s entirely a cloud-native serverless solution in AWS, using a lot of the most modern tools and technologies in the marketplace,” said Kyle Hines (pictured, left), vice president of strategic accounts at Presidio. “For example, the mobile game is built around unity, and the virtual classroom platform is built around the Amazon Chime Software Development Kit, which allows us to build something very clean and light and focused on what the Nation is trying to achieve.”

Chime is an Amazon-hosted conferencing platform.

Hines and Chuck Hoskin, Jr., (pictured, right), chief of the Cherokee Nation, spoke with Natalie Elrich, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the 2021 AWS Global Public Sector Partner Awards. They discussed preserving the Cherokee language, making its platform as accessible as possible, how AWS enabled them to meet their goals and more. (* Disclosure below.)

Bridging the generational gap

The recent pandemic saw the global implementation of virtual classrooms, something Presidio took advantage of to help preserve and spread the Cherokee language.

“It’s been really important that during those difficult times we could connect virtually, and the technology we’ve been using has worked so effectively,” Hoskin said. “But the other is — irrespective of having to isolate — making sure we can make this language accessible to young people in a manner in which they are becoming accustomed to learning things.”

Although the younger generations boast impressive tech skills, it was essential to develop a platform that was accessible to the older generations as well.

“Cherokees are, by nature, very much part of a big, extended family. And so that personal connection that you can maintain through this platform is really important,” Hoskin explained.

The choice of AWS was an easy decision for Presidio, because from a technological perspective, all tools and services it needed to build were in AWS. And when the company needed to use a project outside of AWS, such as Unity Technologies Inc.’s game development platform, AWS made it easy, according to Hines.

“The choice was easy because of the technological portfolio in AWS combined with the partnership that we get from them,” he said.

Not only does the platform Presidio developed introduce new speakers to the language, but it also supplied the Cherokee Nation with a method to preserve the language and the legacy of the fluent elders.

“I can’t tell you how important that is for somebody to use their language,” Hoskin stated. “That’s part of how you preserve a language. Presidio has shown us a way that we can do just that. So we’re not only training new speakers, we’re giving this opportunity to elders to do something very productive with the wonderful gift they have, which is the Cherokee language.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the 2021 AWS Global Public Sector Partner Awards. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for 2021 Global Public Sector Partner Awards. Neither Amazon Web Services Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE