The New Kituwah Academy in North Carolina. Photo from Vermont Timber Works
Students at New Kituwah Academy, the immersion school operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, are getting to read a classic children's book in their own language. Myrtle Driver Johnson, a Beloved Woman of the tribe, translated E.B White’s “Charlotte’s Web" into Tsalagi, using the Cherokee syllabary that was originally developed by Sequoyah. She said she spent three years on the effort to ensure it made sense in the language. “I just imagined the animals talking to each other in Cherokee," Johnson told The Asheville Citizen-Times. The New Kituwah Academy offers immersion classes for students from kindergarten to grade six. The school has to create its own texts due to the lack of available materials in the Cherokee language. The tribe counts between 300 and 400 fluent speakers of the language in North Carolina. Get the Story:
Beloved children's book translated into Cherokee (The Asheville Citizen-Times 5/27)
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