Cherokee Lessons-LIVE!

siyu!
I am a student of cherokee.
I will be a student all my life.

Where can YOU go to get accurate, live instruction?
You can go to the Cherokee Museum on the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina!

The Museum has a Cherokee Immersion Class every year!

Its held every summer, usually in July or August. You can go to the Cherokee Musuem website to find out the next year's dates.

The Cherokee language immersion class is amazing. This ten-day class will teach conversational Cherokee language using the Total Physical Response Method and the Rassius Method developed at Dartmouth.
If you take this class, you will come away speaking!
The class is open to the general public ages 16 and up, the class costs --but there is a discount for certain levels of Museum membership.

AND EBCI enrolled members may attend for FREE.

For information, contact Bo Taylor at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian by phone at 1-828-497-3481 and ask for him but if he's not available, you can ask whomever answers the phone.

The Museum’s first Cherokee language immersion class was offered in 2003 for tribal members through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

This is the class I attended. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

And after all these years, I remember it like it was yesterday! This TPR method really does work!

If you are serious about wanting to learn, try taking this class!

The class will be led by Bo Taylor, along with at least one Cherokee elder in every class session. The ten-day class focuses on immersing participants in Cherokee language through classroom activities, interaction with elders, and field trips. The class will not cover reading and writing Cherokee using Sequoyah’s syllabary. Participants will be responsible for their own room and board.

It is SO worth it to come take this class! If you do, you WILL come out of it speaking Eastern Dialect Cherokee! Yes! Speaking!

Bo Taylor works as Archivist at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and also lectures on Cherokee music, dance and spirituality. He has studied Cherokee language with Robert Bushyhead and Walker Calhoun for many- many years
[both Bushyhead and Walker are recognized as the best authorities on the authentic Eastern Dialect- both were /are elders and both grew up with Eastern Cherokee as their native or first langauge BEFORE they heard or learned English they spoke fluently in Cherokee]
and Bo is dedicated to the preservation of the Cherokee language. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a minor in Cherokee Studies from Western Carolina University. He has taught Cherokee language at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, in the Cherokee History and Culture Institute, and through the Cultural Resources Office of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He also dances with the Warriors of AniKituhwa.

If you attended the revamp of "unto these hills" in 2008, you would recognize his voice-- he sang most all the songs for the production's musical score.

If you listen to CREED- you might recognize his voice on their cd-- he sings the opening on the track "who's got my back now?" on the album "weathered".

Some have asked-- yes-- WCU (Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC) WCU does offer cherokee classes-- but from what I have observed, they are all in TUTIYI or snowbird dialect- NOT in GIDUWA dialect.

Totally Different IMHO.

So don't go there! BUT-- DO go to the Cherokee Musuem on the Qualla!
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for more info on the eastern dialect- just scroll down this page