~ Dancing To Honor Our Ancestors ~

Images from the 60th Annual Cherokee National Holiday
















 


 
























Learning my ancestors language

  The Cherokee language is nearly dead. There are 20,000 people who speak it and predominately as a second language. I do most my running around in a small town and it has a population of ruffly 100,000. I don't imagine I will find a lot of day to day need to read, write, or speak it but I am beginning to teach myself what I can from a few different books, websites, and hopefully at my upcoming class on the syllabary I will find a suitable person to help me practice. I know a few who can speak a limited amount already but it  is a complex language with little reference material available.  So, wish me luck. If all I manage is to learn a limited amount I will at least be doing something to help keep that portion alive.
  Not to complicate matters but I live smack dab in the middle of Choctaw country. I am equal parts Cherokee and Choctaw (this is beginning to sound like a country song) I guess it wont hurt to add a few Choctaw words to my repertoire. 
 The upcoming class I'll be taking is a weekend coarse focusing on the Syllabary created by Sequoyah. I have done some practicing already and am eager to learn more. For some reason I love that the language is set up as a series of syllables as opposed to English or Spanish. It at times reminds me of Japanese.
  Wish Me Luck