Indigenous students build robots to teach their own languages

Danielle Boyer, an Indigenous robotics inventor, created SkoBot as a low-cost educational robot that students can assemble and program themselves.

The device is designed specifically for Native American communities working to revitalize languages that were suppressed through generations of forced assimilation policies.

U.S. Indian boarding schools systematically removed Native children from their families and punished them for speaking their mother tongues, breaking intergenerational transmission.

Many Indigenous languages now have only a few dozen fluent speakers remaining, creating urgency for new preservation approaches.

SkoBot allows students to record and program their own languages directly into the robots, giving them control over what knowledge is shared and how.

The platform deliberately avoids cloud connectivity or corporate data collection, addressing concerns about tech companies harvesting sacred or sensitive cultural knowledge.

Students learn robotics and coding skills simultaneously with language work, creating a dual educational benefit.

Boyer developed the system through her organization The STEAM Connection, which focuses on making technical education accessible to Indigenous youth.