In the past, experts developed calculating machines that worked with three digits, a ternary system, that they hoped would allow for more efficient information processing. In principle, any number can ...

“Around the same time, he also developed a number system,” says Roy Boney, language program manager for the Cherokee Nation. But Cherokee numerals weren't endorsed by the tribal government ...

As it turned out, the numbers were part of the "Eskimo Identification Tag System," a federal program that ran from the 1940s until the 1970s. ... had never heard of the numbering system.