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New Kituwah Academy
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New Kituwah Academy
The New Kituwah Academy (Cherokee: ᎠᏤ ᎩᏚᏩ ᏧᎾᏕᎶᏆᏍᏗ, Atse Kituwah Tsunadeloquasdi; gi-DOO-wah), also known as the Atse Kituwah Academy, is a private bilingual Cherokee- and English-language immersion school for Cherokee students in kindergarten through sixth grade, located in Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Yellow Hill community of the Qualla Boundary. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and operated by the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program (KPEP).
The school is part of a larger effort by the EBCI to save and revitalize the endangered Cherokee language by creating immersion and other language-learning opportunities; it also instills Cherokee cultural pride.
The word kituwah (ᎩᏚᏩ) is used by the Eastern Cherokee to refer to both themselves and their language; it can also mean "center" or "mother town" depending on context. New Kituwah is independent from the Cherokee Central Schools at Qualla Boundary.
In 2018 there were 1,520 Cherokee speakers out of 376,000 Cherokee enrolled in three federally recognized tribes, according to Ethnologue, which classified the language as "moribund." This means that most children are not learning and speaking the language. Only a handful of people under 40 years of age are fluent in Cherokee, and about eight Cherokee speakers die each month.
In 2018, the Eastern dialect present in North Carolina (which is taught at New Kituwah) was known by about 220 Eastern Band speakers. UNESCO considers the North Carolina dialect of Cherokee "severely endangered".
In June 2019, the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes—the EBCI, the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians—declared a state of emergency for the language due to the threat of it going extinct; they called for enhancement of revitalization programs. A tally by the three tribes had garnered a list of ~2,100 remaining speakers.
Another similar institution is the Cherokee Immersion School (Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi) in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
In the 1990s, Cherokee Chief Joyce Dugan oversaw the creation of the Cultural Resources Division of the EBCI. The idea of an immersion school came up as other native peoples worldwide, such as the Māori, Hawaiians, Mohawk, and Piegan, had successfully created their own immersion programs. Later, in April 2004, a preschool immersion program was opened in the Dora Reed Childcare Center; these children comprised the first kindergarten class when the school opened. Chief Michell Hicks was largely responsible for establishing the academy. Classes had to move between buildings before a $6.5 million renovation was completed for the current location. This project was funded by the EBCI and a $1.3 million grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.
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New Kituwah Academy
The New Kituwah Academy (Cherokee: ᎠᏤ ᎩᏚᏩ ᏧᎾᏕᎶᏆᏍᏗ, Atse Kituwah Tsunadeloquasdi; gi-DOO-wah), also known as the Atse Kituwah Academy, is a private bilingual Cherokee- and English-language immersion school for Cherokee students in kindergarten through sixth grade, located in Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Yellow Hill community of the Qualla Boundary. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and operated by the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program (KPEP).
The school is part of a larger effort by the EBCI to save and revitalize the endangered Cherokee language by creating immersion and other language-learning opportunities; it also instills Cherokee cultural pride.
The word kituwah (ᎩᏚᏩ) is used by the Eastern Cherokee to refer to both themselves and their language; it can also mean "center" or "mother town" depending on context. New Kituwah is independent from the Cherokee Central Schools at Qualla Boundary.
In 2018 there were 1,520 Cherokee speakers out of 376,000 Cherokee enrolled in three federally recognized tribes, according to Ethnologue, which classified the language as "moribund." This means that most children are not learning and speaking the language. Only a handful of people under 40 years of age are fluent in Cherokee, and about eight Cherokee speakers die each month.
In 2018, the Eastern dialect present in North Carolina (which is taught at New Kituwah) was known by about 220 Eastern Band speakers. UNESCO considers the North Carolina dialect of Cherokee "severely endangered".
In June 2019, the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes—the EBCI, the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians—declared a state of emergency for the language due to the threat of it going extinct; they called for enhancement of revitalization programs. A tally by the three tribes had garnered a list of ~2,100 remaining speakers.
Another similar institution is the Cherokee Immersion School (Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi) in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
In the 1990s, Cherokee Chief Joyce Dugan oversaw the creation of the Cultural Resources Division of the EBCI. The idea of an immersion school came up as other native peoples worldwide, such as the Māori, Hawaiians, Mohawk, and Piegan, had successfully created their own immersion programs. Later, in April 2004, a preschool immersion program was opened in the Dora Reed Childcare Center; these children comprised the first kindergarten class when the school opened. Chief Michell Hicks was largely responsible for establishing the academy. Classes had to move between buildings before a $6.5 million renovation was completed for the current location. This project was funded by the EBCI and a $1.3 million grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.