By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
TUTIYI (SNOWBIRD) – After raining all morning, the sun suddenly shone brightly through the clouds as the ribbon was cut on a building where youth are learning Cherokee language and traditions. The Snowbird NEST (Native Education Snowbird Traditions) Program opened a new facility on the morning of Monday, Dec. 9.
Erik Oswalt, second from left, speaks just prior to cutting the ribbon to open the new facility housing the Snowbird NEST (Native Education Snowbird Traditions) Program in Tutiyi (Snowbird) on the morning of Monday, Dec. 9. His sister, Leslie Oswalt, is shown at left. They are children of the late Shirley Oswalt, Beloved Woman of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and a Cherokee first language speaker, who founded the program in 2013. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
The new building, an upgrade from the single-wide trailer they were using, will allow the program to serve almost double the amount of youth as before. Funding for the building came from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and a grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.
The NEST Program was founded in 2013 as the Snowbird Cherokee Traditions Corporation by the late EBCI Beloved Woman Shirley Oswalt who was a first language Cherokee speaker and a staunch advocate for teaching the language and traditions. The new facility has four classrooms and a full kitchen.
“When mom started this years ago, she didn’t want it to be called a school,” Erik Oswalt, Snowbird NEST director and son of Beloved Woman Oswalt, said at the event. “She wanted it more like a home than a school.”
He added, “Mom started teaching probably 35 years ago, somewhere around there. Her first student was Joel Turner, one of our teachers. I can remember as a little kid Joel coming to the house, sitting at the kitchen table and doing Cherokee language. It just grew from there. We’ve quadrupled in kids and went from five staff to 12 staff. So, it’s really, really grown. The place we came from was a single-wide trailer to this. It’s really huge for us.”
The program is growing. Erik Oswalt noted they serve around 45 youth and have a total staff of 12 which includes three Cherokee first language speakers (Lou Jackson, Leroy Littlejohn, and Kathy Jones).
Leslie Oswalt, Beloved Woman Oswalt’s daughter, commented, “It’s like a home where they’re cooking and learning because basically, in a school setting, you’re teaching school words. Being a home setting, you’re getting all the other words – like immersion.”
She said seeing the new facility opening is a feeling you cannot express. “My daughter (Jazlyn McEntire) is now teaching here. She went to the adult immersion, but my mom started speaking to her when she was born. If you ask the fluent speakers now, they will tell you that you can tell a difference in Jazlyn versus other students who have gone through the program just because it was from birth.
The first wall you see as you walk into the new facility for the Snowbird NEST program has a photo of the program founder, EBCI Beloved Woman Shirley Oswalt, as well as an EBCI tribal flag.
“I know that one of my mom’s biggest dreams was to keep it alive… It’s more than an honor. I know right now that she couldn’t have even imagined this. She paid out of her own pocket – snacks, everything for the kids…she just had a passion for it.”
Leslie Oswalt said the family is very thankful for the help with the program. “It’s a blessing beyond words that it’s come this far. Thanks not just to the Tribe, but to the families, to the Preservation Foundation, to our staff, and to these kids for coming every day. All summer they give up their summer to come and learn Cherokee language.”
Tutiyi (Snowbird) – Tsalagi Gadugi (Cherokee County) Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) Rep. Adam Wachacha spoke at the event and noted, “She hand-selected a few of us to kind of move this vision and this dream forward. Just because Shirley’s not here, doesn’t mean she isn’t here. She lives through her children. And, her children are carrying on the legacy of what she believed in. This is her dream.
“If you look around, it does feel like a home in here. It feels like something that these kids will come to, look forward to every day, and have to enjoy.”
Lou Jackson, an EBCI elder and Cherokee first language speaker, is an advanced language teacher at Snowbird NEST. “This way, we have more room…it’s going to be good.”
She went on to say, “I think not having enough space was the biggest thing. And, I think we’re going to outgrow this real quick. And it’s going to be a good thing. There’s so much besides just the language that we teach here. I do the food stuff. I teach a lot of other things that they need to learn like gardening, herbs, those kinds of things. Not a lot, just throw it in there.”
The three Cherokee first language speakers on staff at the Snowbird NEST program are shown, left to right, including Leroy Littlejohn, Lou Jackson, and Kathy Jones.
Jackson is optimistic about the future of the Cherokee language. “It’s a really fun language. You have so much fun with it. I think we’re going to be able to save the language. I’m really not worried. I think the biggest problem is the parents. They need to take these classes.”
Brenda Norville, Snowbird NEST board member, said, “Before gaming was around, Shirley (Oswalt) did Cherokee language classes in Snowbird starting at the Little Snowbird Church…she’d offer free classes. So, even before gaming, she had seen that need that we were one day going to come to this where our language would be endangered. So, she saw that many years before she even started the summer youth program.”
She is proud of the new facility for the program. “This is a great facility. His (Erik Oswalt) dream and Leslie’s dream and Shirley’s dream, was actually to have a house type setting for language where the kids could come and it would be like a home.
“Leslie and Erik have just stepped up and to be able to get this facility where they can call home, for now, is wonderful.”
For more information on this program, visit: www.snowbirdnest.org
