At the entrance to the New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, North Carolina, a big red sign reads ‘English Stops Here.’ The school, which teaches preschool through the sixth grade, is a Cherokee language immersion program. Classes, lunch and after-school activities are conducted primarily in Cherokee, and the school’s books, maps and diagrams are full of the 85 symbols that make up the Cherokee syllabary.
Among other resources, teachers and students have access to copies of a half dozen hand-printed picture books designed and created by students at Western Carolina University (WCU). The books cover a range of topics, from Cherokee myths and legends to the riparian habitats of western North Carolina.
The partnership with WCU was initiated by Dr. Hartwell Francis, the curriculum developer for the New Kituwah Academy and an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“One of the things you realize when you start working with a language of a small population is that there are often no materials, or very few materials. And the materials aren’t very pretty,” Francis said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.
So Francis approached Tatiana Potts, printmaking and book arts professor at Western Carolina University. Potts, who is from Slovakia and grew up speaking multiple languages, embraced the project immediately. She sees it as an opportunity for her students to not only learn new printmaking skills, but also to build cross-cultural connections with a community only 20 miles down the road.