This story was originally published in the Daily Yonder. For more rural reporting and small-town stories visit dailyyonder.com. And, it was subsequently reported in David Byrne’s digital “good news” magazine Reasons To Be Cheerful.
We are all, at least most of us very aware of the many public and charter school dual language immersion programs; Spanish, French Mandarin, Japanese and German.
The Daily Yonder
Western Carolina University has partnered with the the New Kituwah Academy in creating a Cherokee language immersion program.
At the entrance to the New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, North Carolina, a big red sign reads ‘English Stops Here.’ The school, which teaches preschool through the sixth grade, is a Cherokee language immersion program. Classes, lunch and after-school activities are conducted primarily in Cherokee, and the school’s books, maps and diagrams are full of the 85 symbols that make up the Cherokee syllabary.
Among other resources, teachers and students have access to copies of a half dozen hand-printed picture books designed and created by students at Western Carolina University (WCU). The books cover a range of topics, from Cherokee myths and legends to the riparian habitats of western North Carolina.
The partnership was initiated by Dr. Hartwell Francis, the curriculum developer for the New Kituwah Academy. “One of the things you realize when you start working with a language of a small population is that there are often no materials, or very few materials. And the materials aren’t very pretty,” Francis said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.
So Francis approached Tatiana Potts, printmaking and book arts professor at Western Carolina University. Potts, who is from Slovakia and grew up speaking multiple languages, embraced the project immediately. She sees it as an opportunity for her students to not only learn new printmaking skills, but also to build cross-cultural connections with a community only 20 miles down the road.
The Daily Yonder
For the last 20 years, the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program has been revitalizing the Cherokee language by teaching it to new generations. The New Kituwah Academy teaches students from preschool through sixth grade, with the goal that students leave the school speaking the Cherokee language at an intermediate level.
Access to Cherokee-language learning materials is critical for the school’s immersion program. But such materials are not widely available, which has forced Francis and the school’s teachers to get creative. The solution — making their own materials — is one that is common among Indigenous language programs, according to Francis.
The books’ contents, as well as the language they are written in, support the critical mission of the New Kituwah Academy.
“There’s a cultural need to preserve the Cherokee language, and keep the poetry alive, the literature alive,” Francis said. “And to keep the interactions that happen in Cherokee language alive.”