Starting young


Children and youth who are Cherokee Nation citizens have the opportunity to enroll in Cherokee language immersion schools located in Tahlequah. The Cherokee Immersion School serves pre-kindergarten to eighth grade students and the Sequoyah High School serves ninth to twelfth grade students. Local area high schoolers may also enroll in an intensive Sequoyah High School Language Immersion After-School Program that teaches the Cherokee language through interactive methods of language acquisition.

A four and nine-week language immersion summer camp, the Cherokee Nation Summer Corp, is also offered starting in June for students age 9 through 19.

Studying Cherokee


In-person Adult Immersion Classes are offered in Tahlequah and are free and open to public. Free online taught classes include Cherokee 101, a survey course that covers basic Cherokee history, culture, and language, and Cherokee 1, 2, and 3 offering progressively advanced levels  of Cherokee language instruction. 

For those seeking an intensive, 2-year full-time program, the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program (CLMAP) pairs novices with master-level fluent Cherokee speakers with the aim of creating new Cherokee language teachers. Graduates are expected to be conversational in Cherokee in the intermediate mid category and are able to speak about most anything they wish in Cherokee. The program comes with an educational cash benefit.

Learning and practicing with others


Free Community Cherokee Classes are offered to the public throughout the 14-county area and at select locations across the US during the spring and fall. No registration is required.

Picking up Cherokee on your own time


Free self-directed classes are available online to the public. Self-directed courses like See, Say, Write and Living Things offer learners the flexibility to learn Cherokee on their own time.

Additional help

Updated January 28, 2026