From Vol. 90, Ed. 08 May 2, 2024
The mission for Cherokee language reclamation continues to gain traction.
In 2019, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band declared a state of emergency for the Cherokee language at a tri-council meeting. At that time, there were only about 2,000 first language Cherokee speakers, many of them elderly, making up 0.005% of the population.
Tribal members and allies have stepped up to ensure the language’s survival. Since the declaration of a state of emergency, the tribes have seen new facilities for immersion schools, more programs funded, more learning resources and an overall higher prioritization of ensured continuance of the language.
An outsider may wonder why the Cherokee people would go to such great lengths to save a language when English is already shared among all members. The Cherokee Language Summit participants explain why revitalizing the language is paramount.
Every year since 2017, Dr. Sarah Snyder Hopkins, the director of Cherokee Studies at WCU, organizes the Cherokee Language Summit at WCU. She started it because she wanted to host an event that would bring together adult Cherokee language teachers and students to share methods and materials and connect with one another.
“I am not native, but the Cherokee people and I are friends,” she said in Cherokee.
Her work with the language began when she was in graduate school for ethnomusicology. In school, Snyder Hopkins wanted to see how music could be used in language revitalization.
This evolved into her teaching music and arts at New Kituwah Academy as part of her dissertation, where she stayed for six years. She began teaching Cherokee studies at WCU in 2016 where her experiences provide insights into the relationship between language and culture.
“Language is everything. It has everything in it, the world view, the culture, the history, identity. At the end of the day, it’s important because it matters to Cherokee people. Being able to speak and use language is a universal human right. It’s their language, their choice. It’s sovereignty to decide what is spoken,” Snyder Hopkins said.
The first day of the Language Summit commenced with a visit to Judaculla Rock on the frigid, windy morning of April 4. From there, attendees made their way back to the WCU campus where the workshops began.
Before commencing the workshops, Snyder Hopkins announced the launch of the Cherokee language minor in the fall of 2024. It will be more specifically tailored to language classes than the Cherokee studies minor currently offered.
Leading figures in the language revitalization movement like Dr. Heartwell Francis hosted workshops at WCU. Francis founded the Cherokee Studies program in 2006, and later worked as the curriculum developer for the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program. He was made an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in 2021 for his dedication to language preservation.
Other presenters included Dr. Ben Frey, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor and Eastern Band member who specializes in language shift, and Chi Shipman, the adult language education coordinator at the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program.
At her workshop Shipman, a WCU graduate and member of the Eastern Band, talked about methods she uses to teach students.
“We do a lot of outside work, because not only are we teaching language, but we are also teaching culture, and history and what it is to be a Cherokee person and to live within the language,” Shipman said.
Like her students, Shipman learned to speak Cherokee as an adult. Her interest in learning the language sparked when she participated in the Remember the Removal bike ride in 2012 that honors those who were forced to walk The Trail of Tears.
“On this ride, I learned a lot more of what it means to be a Cherokee person, what ancestors went through, and the struggles that they faced. I wanted to know more, I wanted to share more, I wanted to educate,” Shipman said.
The final push came when she visited the Māori people in New Zealand with group members from the RTR bike ride. The rules of the gathering in New Zealand dictated she could only speak Māori or her native language.
“I was really ashamed that I hadn’t taken the time to learn my language,” she said.
She returned home determined to learn Cherokee, and four months later was accepted into the Cherokee Language Master Apprenticeship Program.
Shipman explained how the disconnect from Cherokee people and their language came to be so pervasive.
From 1869 into the 1960s, it was common practice to place Indigenous children in boarding schools. The goal of these facilities was to assimilate these children into white, Christian American culture. R. H. Pratt, who developed several Indian boarding schools across the country, was known for saying, “Kill the Indian. Save the man.”
In these schools, children were forbidden from speaking their language and engaging in their cultural practices. In this way, the language and other cultural practices began to slip away.
Keawe Bone and Matt Tooni are two members of the Eastern Band keeping some of those cultural practices going. They led traditional dances for the evening social at the language summit.
The social provided the opportunity for event goers to enjoy community, food, and dance. The Cherokee Repertory Choir commenced the social with a performance of hymns and “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles translated into Cherokee.
Bone and Tooni sang in Cherokee and lead “The Friendship Dance”, “The Bear Dance” and more. Tooni said he learned the songs from his grandfather. He hoped that those who were not familiar with the meanings and customs around the dances would seek further education and understanding of the traditions they were engaging in.
The two encourage non-Cherokee people to learn the language. Tooni said it can’t be just Cherokee people who learn to speak the language if we want to see it go on.
“Our old ways tell us, it’s not your skin, your nationality, it is how you show up here,” Bone said, pointing to his heart. “And if it is on your heart to learn our language, then something is calling you telling you to do so. So, listen to the spirit and follow your heart, because we might need you.”
Tooni and Bone believe language is at the heart of culture. “Language is at the center of the web that is culture, if you lose the language the whole thing unravels,” said Tooni.
“There is an idea and a way of thinking of our elders and the first language speakers. That way of thinking created that language. It sees the world in a particular way. And if we lose that, we may lose the idea of what it means to be Anikituwah; to have a home place and the understanding of our relationship with our place,” Bone said.
Noquisi Star of the Cherokee Nation wants to make sure his two children have access to that way of thinking. Star and his wife drove from Ohio to be at the Language Summit, their 2-year-old and newborn in tow. Star says he is in a race against time to learn the language fast enough to teach his children while they’re young.
“My expectation is that they will speak Cherokee. My hope is that when they do it, they will be able to do it free of an English mindset,” Star said.
The second day of workshops featured a live translation session of historical letters with Tom Belt, Wiggins Blackfox, Sara Snyder Hopkins, Stuart Marshall and Barnes Powell. The translation project is helping historians better understand Cherokee history and the progression of the language dialects.
Jakeli Swimmer, a WCU alumni, Cherokee language teacher and cultural resources and archive officer at Kituwah Preservation and Education Program, gave the final workshop on archiving the Cherokee way. He spoke about why it’s important for Cherokee people to take charge of their artifacts and historical materials.
The group gathered at Kituwah Mound for the closing speech with Tom Belt.
Belt has dedicated much of his life to language revitalization. He is a first language speaker from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, was the Cherokee Language Program Coordinator at WCU in 2018 and was awarded a doctorate of humane letters.
His work includes developing curriculum for teaching Cherokee and working with the American Philosophical Society and the Smithsonian to develop protocols for the treatment of Cherokee archeological materials.
That only scratches the surface of his impact in language revitalization.
Belt’s words on the importance of the language and what it means to be Cherokee commanded attention and strong emotions. Tears rolled down the cheeks of some who listened.
“The words we have are key,” Belt said. “It’s a key to look inside and see that world that we have known for 13,000 years. That’s how important the language is. That’s what will happen if you continue on with learning. It will become more intrinsic and dearer to your hearts than anything in this world.”
Reclaiming the language is not just about words. It is reclaiming identity and reconnecting what was broken.
“We are Anikituwahgi, the people of this place. People of the earth, people of the dirt that belongs to God…Cherokee doesn’t mean a damn thing in our language. That’s who they told us we are. We are Anikituwahgi.”
