"Since the fall, the Eastern Band of Cherokee has been sponsoring cultural presentations at Purdue University. Through a grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation the tribe’s education and training program has been identifying people from our community interested in sharing their life ways with the Purdue University community.

Just recently, Walker Calhoun and the Raven Rock Dancers journeyed to Indiana for cultural discussions and a performance. Our tribe has a long standing relationship with Purdue both formally and informally and we have students who are working on graduate degrees at the University as well. These connections are important for our community because our leaders have long believed that education was paramount in the survival of our people.

Early in the 19th century, Cherokee leaders were inviting religious groups into our Nation to set up schools. In fact, it is said that Sequoyah decided to invent our syllabary because he marveled at the “talking leaves” of the newcomers to our lands. Education continues to be important to our people and one of the missions of our education department is to ensure that any member of our tribe who wants to further their education not be held back because of funding."

Get the Story:
B. Lynne Harlan: Connecting our culture with a wider audience (The Asheville Citizen-Times 4/16)

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