Going to Snowbird Community--Tutiyi--Your Grandmother's Cherokee Pilot Project

Tonight we began a pilot project in the Snowbird Community, Tutiyi, in Graham County, NC.  During the next three weeks of the Snowbird Language Camp, Shirley Oswalt and others will be teaching students during the day, using our method based on the patterns in Cherokee language.  These students along with their family members will continue to learn together in an evening class for the next several months. We will be traveling to Snowbird to teach once a week.

In addition, our website will provide lessons, audio dialogues, automated worksheets, a dictionary with more than 50,000 words, and support for youth and adults as they learn together on their laptops, tablets, and smartphones. With this support they can study and communicate every day.

Shirley Oswalt said tonight, “We need a way to explain to our students how the language works.  This method helps them learn a lot of words really fast so they can begin to speak.”  About the patterns in the language, she said,  “When the Creator made this language there was a pattern, because the Creator has a plan for everything.”

We really appreciate Shirley Jackson Oswalt, Mary Brown, Lou Jackson, Brett Jones, and all the parents and students in Snowbird who are willing to try Your Grandmother’s Cherokee. We also appreciate our students in Cherokee and around the country, who have helped try our method over the past two and a half years. Thanks to our students Louise Goings and Dr. Eva Garroutte (Cherokee Nation) who helped with teaching this week. 

Thanks to the Cherokee Preservation Foundation for providing grant funds to the Snowbird Language Camp to include this pilot project.  We appreciate all of you!  Nigada ditsvyalihelitseha!