CHAIRPERSON MESSAGE: September 2024

ᎣᏏᏲ ᏂᎦᏛ osiyo nigad! (hello, everyone!)

We thoroughly enjoyed our Annual Campout in August and spending time together in the Angels Camp foothills! We felt lucky for the remarkably beautiful weather. Wado to all out generous volunteers! Everyone pitched in to make the event memorable and enjoyable for all. We had a great time with Cherokee National Treasure Robert Lewis who spent the day with us. You can see more about the event here.

We have more opportunities to connect at events this year. Coming up this month, we have a virtual meet and greet with our Sister City, Marble City Activity Organization on September 21! We also have dates and times for our second language intensive in October with virtual (live) lessons and an in-person weekend (October 12-13). Finally, we have a membership gathering, potluck, and annual election coming up on October 19. If the weather is nice, we can play Cherokee Marbles and Chunky in the park! On November 9, come join us for lunch in Oroville and a field trip to explore the town of Cherokee.

Also in this month’s newsletter, we share candidate information for our upcoming October election and celebrate two young Cherokee citizens participating in the reintroduction of cultural burning led by the local Tocha Dehe Wintun Nation. Enjoy our traditional story about how Waleli (Hummingbird) brought back our sacred Tsola (Tobacco). Learn more about the “nixtamalization” traditional process that Cherokees have used since time immemorial to make corn more nutritious (and tasty!), taking heirloom corn from seed to hominy (and then to tortillas in this case as blackened fish tacos and huevos rancheros).

As we plan events for 2025, let us know what types of activities or topics you’d like to see. Contact us here. For one event, we would like to host a meeting to share opportunities and resources available to Cherokee Nation citizens. We’re looking for resource experts to assist. Do you know a lot about scholarships and financial aid, home loans, healthcare, etc.? Let us know!

The CNCV also has a resource webpage for you with many informative links for citizenship, language, culture, history, health, education, veterans, and more. It's a work in progress and we'll be adding to it as time goes on. Let us know if you'd like to see something specifically there.

We hope to see everyone at our Fall events!

ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ dodadagohvi ‘til we meet again,

-- Sabrina McKinney