@magicalmilly

as someone who has some inside knowledge about this issue, i'm not sure that's the right conclusion.

you have to keep in mind that Duolingo has to work with the tribes to prepare educational materials for each language they support on the platform. Navajo is low-hanging fruit because a lot of material is available from the military due to the codetalkers.

Cherokee for example is not on the platform yet because the Cherokee Nation is still preparing proficiency materials. I know for a fact that Duolingo reached out to CN because their reaching out is part of what sparked interest at the tribal level to create educational materials.

a lot of tribes under previous leadership have taken actions to discourage learning of their native languages, in order to better assimilate into white culture. they took that position because they erroneously believed the tribe would be better off for it. while we can agree that this is unfortunate today, that type of thinking was prevalent last century, with initiatives like the dawes rolls being used to slowly snuff out tribal sovereignty.