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In Wichita, New Class Helps Preserve Cherokee Language

Nadya Faulx
/
KMUW
Josh Webster gestures as he teaches the first of 10 Cherokee language classes at the Mid-America All-Indian Center.

The 50 or so students gathered at the Mid-America All-Indian Center this past Saturday made up what was probably the largest class Josh Webster has seen in this almost 20 years of teaching.

“The one I thought was huge before this one was 11,” he says.

The students are here for what is the first of 10 free Cherokee language classes now being offered at the center. Webster is one of just a handful of certified Cherokee language instructors in the country — and at 35, he’s among the youngest.

Webster grew up in Oklahoma speaking Cherokee with his family. It’s the language he feels most comfortable with.

“I come from a very, very traditional family that believes that our language and culture should be a part of our everyday life,” he says. “I'm glad I'm still young and that I had the opportunity to be raised with my great aunt to where I could hear Cherokee every day. Not everyone has that resource available to them.”

Credit Nadya Faulx / KMUW
/
KMUW
More than 50 students came to the first class on Saturday. Josh Webster, right, is a certified Cherokee language instructor and grew up speaking the language.

Of the 350,000 citizens in federally recognized Cherokee tribes today, it’s estimated that less than 10 percent of them speak the language, and even fewer can read or write it. Years of forced assimilation by the U.S. government led to the decline of the Cherokee language; it’s considered “definitely endangered” by the United Nations.

Webster says in recent years, there has been an effort to reverse the loss: through children’s cartoons created by Cherokee Nation, through new education programs, and through classes like his.

“We're losing so many languages every day,” he says. “So I try so hard to just keep it alive.”

Webster and his family recently moved from Oklahoma to Augusta; he says he didn't think he was going to get to continue teaching, until the opportunity came up with the Mid-America All-Indian Center. 

Webster’s class is a mix of Cherokee and non-Cherokee students; many of his past classes have been predominately Cherokee, but he says everyone is welcome to learn.

“Even if it isn't their culture,” he says, “I'm extremely flattered that they love it.”

josh_cherokee_basics.mp4
Josh Webster shares some Cherokee greetings.

Cherokee is a difficult language — it’s tonal, so the slightest shift in pronunciation can convey a completely different meaning. And it’s polysynthetic: One word can convey a lot of information.

But Webster says at the end of the 10-week course, students will be able to greet each other and even hold small conversations in Cherokee; students who attend all classes will receive a certificate.

Depending on interest, Webster says it’s possible he’ll go on to teach a more advanced class after this one.

“It's just a part of me, and I want to share that with as many people as I can,” he says. “And because of the decline, I feel like I should work more now than I ever felt.”

The next class is this Saturday, Dec. 15, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Mid-America All-Indian Center.

Follow Nadya Faulx on Twitter @NadyaFaulx. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.