6 graduate from language program
Snowbird – In 1872, Graham County took action to create a school system for the Cherokee on the Snowbird Reservation. On Sept. 6, 1880, a school district was established and the Cherokee attended a one-teacher schoolhouse. The Snowbird School served the students and families of the Cherokee until the students were transferred to Robbinsville schools in 1963.
After the inclusion into the white schools, many of the younger Cherokee were no longer exposed to their language. As time passed and the older tribal members died, the language became a second language even to many of the Cherokee people. Still, there was a remnant of the tribe that spoke the language and continued to teach it whenever they had the opportunity.
Fortunately, the language has survived.
Monday at the Jacob Cornsilk Community Building – on the site of the old Indian School – the Dadiwonisi Language Program held its second graduation exercise. Six tribal members received their diplomas after an intense two-year program: Malakai “Sdeyida” Littlejohn, Callie “Amayi Akahedo” Bush, Lauryn “Layani/Gvnted” Rattler, Rachel “Letsili” Ballou and Troy “Koga” Jones – all from the Snowbird community – as well as Birdtown resident Lakoda “Elogwa” Bird.
Each graduate was given a diploma and asked to give a speech to the audience of family members and tribal members. They were asked to introduce themselves and share what they had learned in the past two years speaking Cherokee.
Their speeches were then spoken in English by Cassidy Galaviz, a language teacher at “Dadiwonisi.”
The night was filled with emotion. Roger Smoker opened and closed the ceremony in a prayer spoken in Cherokee.
Bo “Galtsadi Delagisgi” Taylor, manager of the program, welcomed everyone and shared, “When I became a Christian, I was told, this is not the end, but the beginning.”
He charged the students to remember, “You have a responsibility. You know what the language means. Keep it together and make it happen.”
Principal Chief Michell Hicks spoke in Cherokee, encouraging the people to, “keep the language vibrant and strong.”
There are currently 149 speakers to carry on the language.
Tribal council members Bucky Brown and Adam Wachacha also spoke. Brown shared the fact that his family, The Singing Browns, had recorded a song in Cherokee, “That Heavenly Home,” that had at one time finished third on a German Gospel Radio Station.
“There is still time. We still have a living language, a living culture,” Wachacha said. “Be that voice.”
Male graduates were given a silver necklace, while the women were gifted silver earrings, and each graduate received a silver fire pot. The fire pots were used to carry a living fire whenever the Cherokee traveled. This treasure was given to each graduate with a charge to keep the flame of the Cherokee alive.
“The fire is always in our soul,” Taylor reminded. “That is what makes us Cherokee.”