SPOKESPERSON MESSAGE: December 2023 Newsletter
ᎣᏏᏲ ᏂᎦᏛ osiyo nigad! (hello, everyone!),
As we close the year and reflect on our time spent together, we can be grateful for so many moments filled with Cherokee fellowship, our growing community, and special Cherokee cultural and history events. And we have many more exciting events to look forward to in 2024!
On Saturday, February 3rd, please join us to welcome Will Rogers’ great-granddaughter, family representative, and Bakersfield almond farmer, Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, to speak about Rogers’ life and legacy as one of our most famous Cherokee Nation citizens. It is not to be missed and we hope to see you there!
Another event coming in early Spring: a Cherokee language intensive course for our community! This will consist of expert instruction from Cherokee Nation language teachers providing 2-hour virtual lessons three times a week for a series of weeks starting in late January, culminating in an in-person weekend gathering, planned in early March. All are welcome! We expect to have more details and registration soon.
Also in this month’s newsletter, we reflect back on our Fall events, including Julia Coates’ presentation on the history of the Keetoowahs and our Cherokee Nation History Course taught by Will Chavez, who got to tour some of our own historic places with Elder Mike Webb. If you know any special veterans in your life, please consider applying for a Medal of Patriotism through the Cherokee Nation. Our family was able to honor my grandfather posthumously recently and we want to spread the word about this meaningful award.
We want to ensure our programming, community resources, and events meet the needs of our CNCV members. To that end, if you have not yet, we humbly ask that you complete our CNCV community needs survey. Your voice helps our organization embody the Cherokee value of ᎦᏚᎩ gadugi—working together to help those in our community. The collected information will help us assess our current programming and develop new approaches to engaging and supporting our community.
We’re excited to announce some shifting of roles to serve our community: Odell Landers as Secretary, Debby Rising as Membership Coordinator, Jackie Robbins as Historian, and Sheila Zangrilli as Alternate Spokesperson, all of whom have served dutifully in other roles. We sincerely thank Martha Blackbird and Shirley Rowland for their exceptional dedication to service on the council for many years. ᏩᏙ wado, all! Finally, I’m honored and grateful to serve our community in any way I can, most recently as incoming spokesperson.
It’s been an absolute joy visiting with many of you at our gatherings. We’re looking forward to many more together and a great next year!
ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ dodadagohvi (until we all meet again),
—Sabrina McKinney
