Study in Cherokee nation to cover language, history, more

Twelve students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will experience a different kind of study abroad this summer as they live and learn in the Cherokee Nation. The new American studies course, developed by UNC faculty members Theda Perdue and Tol Foster in the College of Arts and Sciences, represents a partnership between Carolina and Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla. Northeastern State has the highest enrollment of American Indian undergraduates in the world–and some of those students will join their UNC peers and share their understandings of the contemporary Cherokee Nation. UNC students will live in Tahlequah from May 24-June 14. The course will combine formal classroom time with field trips, and students will be required to blog about their experiences. Students will take introductory Cherokee language; study contemporary Cherokee film, animation, art and literature; and take the law and history course designed for employees of the Cherokee Nation by tribal council member Julia Coates. Coates is assistant professor of American studies at the University of California, Davis. Students also will participate in cultural activities including Cherokee marbles, stickball and the stomp dance. They will go to Cherokee Nation tribal headquarters and meet with Principal Chief Chad Smith. They also will visit Sequoyah High School; Fort Gibson, where the Trail of Tears ended for many Cherokees; the house of Sequoyah, credited with developing a written form of the Cherokee language; and the historic Cherokee Female Seminary, among other sites. In 1838 and 1839, as part of President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policy, the Cherokee Nation was forced to abandon its lands east of the Mississippi River and migrate to Oklahoma. During this forced march, now known as the Trail of Tears, more than 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokees died of hunger, disease or exhaustion. Phyllis Fife, a citizen of the Mvskoke Creek Nation and director of the Center for Tribal Studies at Northeastern State, will coordinate language instruction for the UNC students, along with other cultural experiences. "This unique program will allow students to be fully immersed in the contemporary cultural life of one of the most dynamic and successful tribal nations in the world," said Perdue, the Atlanta Distinguished Professor of history at UNC. Perdue has been writing and teaching Cherokee history for 35 years. As a former resident faculty member of a UNC study abroad program in London, she wanted to develop a similar experience for students in an American Indian community. Foster, a citizen of the Mvskoke Creek Nation and assistant professor of American studies, will be the residential UNC faculty member in Oklahoma and teach the course component on literature and film. He specializes in American Indian literature as well as Oklahoma tribal regional studies, and he grew up in eastern Oklahoma. "We are excited about the chance for this summer class to follow the Cherokee exodus 1,000 miles west to the national Cherokee capitol," Foster said. "Students will have unparalleled access to the people who make up a contemporary sovereign tribal nation–Indian health experts, tribal policemen, Cherokee animators, environmental officers, scholars and cultural leaders."