Schon Duncan

The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a State of Emergency for the language in 2019. While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 2,000 fluent speakers remain—the majority of whom are elderly. The covid pandemic has unfortunately hastened the course. Language activists, artists, and the youth must now lead the charge of urgent radical revitalization efforts to help save the language from the brink of extinction.

ᎠᏲᎧ is a portrait of Ahyoka Youngdeer, Cherokee culture bearer, teacher, and two-spirit activist. Weaving her own life with a traditional Cherokee story about a crooked-face boy, Ahyoka traces how exclusion was never a Cherokee value and reminds us what it truly means to be a Keetoowah person.

The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a State of Emergency for the language in 2019. While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 2,000 fluent speakers remain—the majority of whom are elderly. The covid pandemic has unfortunately hastened the course. Language activists, artists, and the youth must now lead the charge of urgent radical revitalization efforts to help save the language from the brink of extinction.

The Cherokee language is deeply tied to Cherokee identity; yet generations of assimilation efforts by the U.S. government and anti-Indigenous stigmas have forced the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a State of Emergency for the language in 2019. While there are 430,000 Cherokee citizens in the three federally recognized tribes, fewer than an estimated 2,000 fluent speakers remain—the majority of whom are elderly. The covid pandemic has unfortunately hastened the course. Language activists, artists, and the youth must now lead the charge of urgent radical revitalization efforts to help save the language from the brink of extinction.

ᎠᏲᎧ is a portrait of Ahyoka Youngdeer, Cherokee culture bearer, teacher, and two-spirit activist. Weaving her own life with a traditional Cherokee story about a crooked-face boy, Ahyoka traces how exclusion was never a Cherokee value and reminds us what it truly means to be a Keetoowah person.

ᎠᏲᎧ is a portrait of Ahyoka Youngdeer, Cherokee culture bearer, teacher, and two-spirit activist. Weaving her own life with a traditional Cherokee story about a crooked-face boy, Ahyoka traces how exclusion was never a Cherokee value and reminds us what it truly means to be a Keetoowah person.

ᎠᏲᎧ is a portrait of Ahyoka Youngdeer, Cherokee culture bearer, teacher, and two-spirit activist. Weaving her own life with a traditional Cherokee story about a crooked-face boy, Ahyoka traces how exclusion was never a Cherokee value and reminds us what it truly means to be a Keetoowah person.