Disruption

 This is an awesome event showcasing the remarkable artistic talent on the Qualla Boundary. And several former Gadugi scholars are represented!! Please stop by and check it out!

Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration at Appalachian State!

 Mark your calendars for a very special event on October 10--Indigenous Peoples Day!! I am so excited for this presentation, and even more excited to be doing it with two of my very favorite former students, Darius Lambert and Simon Montelongo! We will be talking about the Critical Race Theory panic and how it threatens the teaching of honest American Indian history. Please come join us if you can. The program is sponsored by the Gadugi Partnership and App State's Native American Student Association!

First NASA Meeting this Week!!

 Our first Native American Student Association meeting is this Wednesday, August 31 at 6pm in the Parkway Ballroom in the PSU! Hope to see you there!

Back the Braid

 As students return to schools across the country, please remember that culture matters. #BacktheBraid

Read to Lead

 I'm so excited to announce the return of the Read to Lead program! COVID kept us from doing this for a few years, but this month we get the chance to revive it! Read to Lead is a partnership between the Gadugi Program and Dora Reed Center/Cherokee Head Start. This year, Cherokee High School student athletes from the baseball and softball teams will be reading the story of Louis Sockalexis to Head Start children and then lead them in an activity. Thanks to the generosity of our ASU partners, each child at Dora Reed will receive a copy of the book to take home. I'm equally excited to announce that we have re-named the event the Nellie Littlejohn Read to Lead Program in memory of our beautiful friend Nellie Littlejohn. I met Nellie at Dora Reed, and she was a huge supporter of the work and the students. Nellie was a dear, dear, friend, and I am thrilled that her family has given me permission to honor her in this way! #GoBraves #Gadugi #ReadToLead

2022 Selu Lecture

 On Monday, March 14th, the Gadugi Program will celebrate Women’s History Month by sponsoring the 2022 Selu Lecture. Named in honor of Selu, the Cherokee corn-mother, First Woman and goddess of the corn, the lecture seeks to honor the matrilineal culture of the Cherokee by highlighting the remarkable contributions of contemporary Cherokee women leaders. This year we are honored to host Ms. Anette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Ms. Clapsaddle resides in Qualla, NC. She holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her debut novel, Even As We Breathe (UPK 2020), was a finalist for the Weatherford Award, named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020, and received the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award (2021). Clapsaddle’s work appears in Yes! Magazine, Lit Hub, and The Atlantic. She teaches secondary English and Cherokee Studies, is an editor for the Appalachian Futures Series (UPK), and serves on the board of trustees for the North Carolina Writers Network.

Please join us in welcoming Ms. Clapsaddle at 2:00 PM on March 14th in room 137C in Plemmons Student Union! For more information please contact Dr. Allen Bryant @262-3152 or bryantja@appstate.edu

 Please join us in welcoming Ms. C Attic Window (room 137C) in the Plemmon

Don't Forget!!

 Don't forget about tomorrow's Boarding School Remembrance wreath laying ceremony at the old boarding school silo. It's at 12:30 and everyone is invited! S'gi!

Refurbished silo from the Cherokee Training School 
that opened in 1880.

Boarding School Remembrance

 Please join the Gadugi Scholars this Friday at 12:30 for a wreath laying ceremony at the old Cherokee Training School/boarding school silo (by the transportation building) in memory of the victims of boarding schools as well as in honor of the survivors. The ceremony will last about half an hour and is open to all. S'gi!

Gadugi scholars at 2013 ceremony

Happy Veterans Day from the Gadugi Partnership

Happy Veterans Day!

Russell D. Norris, of the Big Cove community on the Qualla Boundary, 

World War Two US Navy veteran.

From The Appalachian

 S'gi to the student reporters at The Appalachian for this terrific article on Gadugi's work!

Shout Out

 Shout out to Gadugi scholar Elijah Watty for being named WNCC co-player of the game in last Friday's big win against Swain! Elijah had 12 carries for 71 yards and a touchdown. This is his second such honor this season. He's also a star student! Great job, Elijah! #GoBraves

Celebrating Sequoyah with Mr. James Standingdeer

 Please join the Gadugi Partnership as we celebrate American Indian Heritage/History Month with the final event in our Celebrating Sequoyah speaker series with Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians linguist Mr. James Standingdeer. Mr. Standingdeer will be speaking about the fight to preserve the Cherokee language as well as the role language plays in the maintenance and promotion of culture. RSVP link is below

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6Zi3YfgCxkBclBl9lEdC2XdH60SmTrAAz5P0bjAiK1qN9Lg/viewform

or see our event page at 

https://www.facebook.com/appstategadugi

Our Second Celebrating Sequoyah Event

 If you were unable to join us on Monday for our second Celebrating Sequoyah event, the link below is to the Gadugi Youtube page and the presentation is there. Mr. Catcuce Tiger was inspiring and brilliant, and you'll enjoy his words and thoughts! Please join us November 10th for our final speaker, Mr. James Standingdeer. S'gi!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gary0VBx3Aw&t=5s

Join Us on Indigenous Peoples Day!

 Shiyo! Please join us next Monday as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day by continuing with our Celebrating Sequoyah speaker series. Our speaker will be Mr. Catcuce Tiger, Cherokee language teacher at Cherokee High School on the Qualla Boundary. Below is the link to register for this exciting event! S'gi

https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSeDam2yZhRwqE.../viewform

Day of Remembrance

 Thursday is a Day of Remembrance for the Indigenous victims and survivors of boarding schools in the US and Canada. People are asked to wear orange to remember those Native children who were taken. Many of them never came home, and many of those who did came back with scars that lasted a lifetime. Join us and wear orange that day! It's both easy and meaningful! S'gi

Last Week's Event

 If you were unable to attend last week's Celebrating Sequoyah event you can now watch on the Gadugi Youtube page! It was a terrific talk and discussion. We hope you can join us on October 11th--Indigenous People's Day--for our second event. It's at 7 pm on zoom. S'gi!

Celebrating Sequoyah

 Shiyo! The Gadugi Partnership is excited to announce this semester's programming to recognize and honor the bicentennial of Sequoyah's syllabary and all it has meant and means to the Cherokee people. We have three amazing speakers coming as well as several films (which will be announced later)! Please make plans to attend if you can...you will not regret hearing these wonderful folks share their time and their gifts. S'gi!

Coming Soon!

 

BIG News coming!!!

 Watch this space for an exciting announcement early next week!!

Louis Sockalexis and the Cleveland Indians

 Since last week's announcement that the Cleveland Major League Baseball team would be changing their team name to the Guardians, there has been a lot of (usually ill informed) discussion about the link between the Penobscot citizen Louis Sockalexis and the team's "Indians" moniker. Sockalexis broke baseball's color barrier long before Jackie Robinson, when he played for the Cleveland Spiders. Still, the story that he is the inspiration behind the name "Indians" is, as history usually is, much more convoluted and contradictory than it might appear. This article  does the best job I've seen of taking a deep dive into the truth. 

Louis Sockalexis of the Cleveland Spiders