Some schools are using these keyboards to help students learn these endangered languages.

When Apple released iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 in September, much of the buzz centered on the update’s revamped Siri AI. However, the update also brought a handful of new indigenous languages to the device’s keyboard, allowing users to type and send messages in Blackfoot and other languages. In the US, Monday is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a federally recognized holiday honoring Native American heritage, culture and sovereignty.

Some of the supported languages have only a couple of thousand speakers. Consider Cherokee, which has only about 1,500 fluent speakers in the entire world. Cherokee was the first Native American language Apple added to iOS back in 2010, and its inclusion has been seen by some as a welcome development.

“The technology that we utilize with Apple has allowed us to take everything that we really are trying to achieve here, which is the perpetuation and the revitalization of Cherokee language and culture, and use that same technology to make it relevant to the young people that are learning here,” Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said, according to Apple.

Teachers in Oklahoma are also using these tools in their classrooms to help more students engage with Native American languages. These tools can help students practice their pronunciation by allowing them to record themselves to revisit later.

“In Cherokee language, every sound is so important,” Erlinda “Daksi” Soap, a fifth-grade teacher at Oklahoma’s Cherokee Immersion School, told Apple.

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