The Cherokee Nation will raise the pay for employees who speak or start learning Cherokee, and the Nation will expand home health for elderly native speakers, as part of an increasing effort to preserve the language.

Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. signed legislation Thursday increasing annual spending on language by $2.3 million.

Cherokee Translator D.J. McCarter praised the effort, saying, "If we lose our language, I think we lose our identity."

Hoskin Jr. signed the legislation before 1,000 people at the annual First Language and Advanced Cherokee Speaker gathering.

Hoskin said tribal employees working on fluency will receive a bonus and an hourly raise.

"It goes up the more advanced that you go in learning in our workforce, and our fluent speakers will receive $2.50 an hour and a

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