By BROOKLYN BROWN
Tsisqwohi (Birdtown)
There is a great urgency to our language revitalization efforts; we feel it every day. If we’re not careful, that urgency can feel like anxiety, dread, or even defeat. But urgency does not mean defeat; it means there’s an opportunity that we can seize.
The Tsalagi Anata Anitsvyasdi (Cherokee Lady Braves) varsity volleyball players celebrate a point in the 2024-25 Smoky Mountain Conference Championship. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photo)
I had an enlightening conversation with a coworker yesterday about the language realities of other tribes across Indian Country. Some tribes have less than 10 speakers, and some have no speakers left.
Cherokee is blessed, even though we see our numbers go down frequently, because we have the opportunity to talk with and learn from our speakers every day!
We are neighbors with speakers. We have a building dedicated to their work. We are surrounded by resources, including books written and translated by our speakers, audio recordings of our speakers reading these books, Cherokee Syllabary throughout our community on building and roads signs, and more. We must seize the opportunity we have been blessed with to learn our language.
In sports, the winner’s mentality recognizes reality while seizing opportunities. The winner says, yes, in this volleyball set we have 24 points and the other team has 25, and they need one more point to win, but we still have the opportunity to win. We can come back and beat them. The losing mentality is filled with dread and chokes at the opportunity before them. The Tsalagi Anata Anitsvyasdi (Cherokee Lady Braves) do not run from their opportunities, they seize them. That is the mentality we need to have in our language efforts.
Unetlanv has given us a gift. We have the opportunity before us to learn the language given to us. A language that is filled with medicine, history, and power. The reality is urgent, but the opportunity is before us. Iyusdigwo!!
