The isolation that contributed to the formation
of some mountain dialects also helped Native Americans preserve their heritage in the rising
tide of European culture. Ahnawo gisduisi
[English: "putting a cloth over it"] It talks about where the Indians used to use a cloth to make a medicine when they used
to have a cloth to put their medicine on and that's what he's talking about on that song. This is one of my frog bowl. Gadagwahl degvd degvsgvyu,
[English: "I use that clay and really work it, tsulasg nigvgv.
to make a pot"] That's how I was making pottery. My name in the
Cherokee language is Maga uwodigei, ale osigwu nagwadvhnadegv.
[English: "Mark Brown, and I'm doing alright"] I'm alright. Nole nigohilv digilvwisdane gehv.
[English: "And I used to work all the time."] I worked all the time. And that's the Cherokee language. Siyo, osigwutsu?
[English: "Hi, are you doing alright? Taline denadagohv
We'll see each other again."] See you again. My youngest one, that's all he knew when he
first talked was Cherokee and he picked up English from these other kids before he even
started school. I speak all the time, I don't care if they
didn't understand me, I'd get after them if speak in English. I said I always tell them, I speak in Cherokee. Well, I use Cherokee any time I'm talking
to a Cherokee. It don't matter where it's at. I'd rather talk Cherokee than English. Me and my grandchildren, I talk to them
in Cherokee and I named them with Cherokee names myself so I can call them. They named these babies so hard names, I ain't
never heard in my life. I can't say their names so I just named them
myself an Indian name. Well that's the way it was in the way long
time ago they had to name them an Indian name. Now they don't even know what their Indian
name is. Prior to colonization, the area that would
become North Carolina was home to numerous native language groups including Iroquoian,
Algonquian, and Siouxan language families. In 1870, the United States government established
mandatory boarding schools for Indians across the country. Young Indians were forced to live apart from
their parents in the federal schools. Their hair was cut, their clothes were replaced
by school uniforms, and the use of their native language was punished severely. All of these children were assigned new English
names. They wanted to civilize us, I suppose. They were punished for speaking Cherokee. So I think that was when it became endangered. Of course, you know, we feel the effects of
it now because there's so many that don't speak the language. Every time someone that spoke Cherokee dies,
there's been quite a few more and more as they get older. Makes me feel kind of bad. So now we use it some here not like we did. We only have one preacher that could preach
Cherokee without any English. Only one left. We had two and then one died a few months
ago.. I mean they did speak in Cherokee mostly all
of them way back when I was growing up. There weren't too many people that speak in
English. Just a few of them. And you'd go to the home, they all speak in
Cherokee. Everywhere you went. And now you can't go nowheres and they'd say
I don't know how to speak it. Cherokee language is almost gone. There's probably less than 300 Cherokees that
speak fluent Cherokee, you know. When I was a kid, I was very much aware of
that cadence in the craft shops. I worked in the craft shops down there from
the time I was 14, it was probably against the law, clear up to when I graduated from
college. I'd go back in the summer and work down there
in the summer when I was in college. There's an awful lot of fake Cherokees now. Guys making a good living pretending to be
Cherokees that are really extroverted and sort of show people. You can usually identify a fake Cherokee by
his name. If it's a beautiful name. Floating Eaglefeather, you know, Snow Bear. Beware! Beware, beware. Because the Cherokee names, there are some
colorful ones, but what you hear more often is Tooni, Crow, Big Meat, Smoker, Stomper, Swimmer. They don't have the drama that people like
in a colorful name. Princess Pale Moon, ohh, look out. Course there's a genuine effort in Cherokee
to give you the true Cherokees. But, lots of times the tourists aren't interested
in that. They want bloody tomahawks and scalping, and
they want what they're accustomed to. They wanna see a deer slayer right there on
Main Street. And if you tell them that Cherokees were sophisticated
and agrarian, they raised cotton, they had their own alphabet syllabary, their own newspaper
back in the 1820's, they get bored. That's not really what they want. That's not the image they want. The Cherokee culture and language will survive
because of the great emphasis that has been going on for the last five or six years. And I think that we are getting to the children
at the right time and that is birth on. Language is culture and culture is language. That's who we are. Our language is who we are. Once you start learning the language, it branches
out to all other areas: history, culture, traditions So when they're learning the language they're
learning, you know, everything about the Cherokee people as well. Not many of us can fully say things like the
older people can, but we're learning which makes it better. Not many people can say they can speak two
different languages. And especially a Native American language
and I think it's pretty cool that that's our heritage, that we're learning our heritage. If you see like white people and stuff, it's like, we'll talk to each other about them and they won't know. I don't know, it just kind of feels good to
have our own language that nobody else can understand. All our elders know it, but if we don't learn
it, And they're gone, then it's going to be gone. Nobody knows it. So if we don't learn it, nobody'll know it,
and it's like our heritage is gone. We've got some here yet who speak Cherokee
in their 40s and 50s, no kids. They speak Cherokee. But they're learning, they sing, the kids
catch on quick.
