Native Kids Build Robots to Save Endangered Languages

Danielle Boyer watched her grandmother become one of the last fluent speakers of their Anishinaabemowin dialect. Fewer than 10,000 people in the U.S. still speak the language that includes Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe.

The loss started generations ago when the U.S. Indian boarding school system forcibly separated Native children from their families. Kids were punished for speaking their mother tongues, and many never passed those languages on.

Boyer refused to let her family's story end there. At 18, she launched a nonprofit with an unlikely inspiration: Tickle Me Elmo.

"There are toys that teach us in English, but there aren't toys that teach us Anishinaabemowin," she said. "And I wanted that to be different."

She created SkoBots: small robots shaped like woodland creatures and decorated with Native American florals. Children program them to answer questions in their own languages using their own recorded voices.

One of those kids is 12-year-old Holden Hoy from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. He named his SkoBot "Sabe," the word for Bigfoot, which represents honesty in Ojibwe culture.

At his school science fair, Sabe greeted visitors in Holden's voice: "Aaniin, Hello. Sabe indizhinikaaz, Bahweting indoonjibaa." Then came the punchline: "I will not gain sentience and take over the world. Or will I?"

Boyer deliberately keeps generative AI out of her robots. She's watched ChatGPT invent fake Anishinaabemowin words, and accuracy matters too much to risk it.

"If we're not learning our language correctly, we shouldn't learn it at all," she said. The SkoBots only play pre-recorded audio files when they hear trigger words.

There's another reason to avoid AI. "When you are putting accurate information into these models, you're giving away sacred information to companies that don't have our best interests at heart," Boyer explained.

The Ripple Effect

Now 25, Boyer has mentored hundreds of Native American children across the country. The robots aren't replacing fluent elders but sparking curiosity about language, culture, and science all at once.

For Holden's mother Jocelyn, something unexpected happened. Her son started teaching her the language she'd once been ashamed to claim.

"At a time in my life, I did not want to be identified as Native American," she said. "Now as an adult, I cannot wait to learn more, and I think the SkoBots are going to help me and so many kids learn their heritage and who they are."

Holden put it best: "The language is the culture!"