Cherokee

There is a large amount of learning and reference material for Cherokee. The following entries are far from complete. For further information contact Durbin Feeling (dfeeling@ionet.net), who teaches Cherokee at the University of Tulsa.

• An introductory textbook for Oklahoma Cherokee, Beginning Cherokee, by Ruth Bradley Holmes and Betty Sharp Smith, is published by the Univ. of Oklahoma Press (2nd ed., 1977, 332 pp., $15.95). It has 27 lessons, and exercises in the Cherokee syllabary. Separately available are 184 minutes of cassette tapes containing all the Cherokee words, phrases and songs that appear in the first 16 lessons of the textbook, spoken by Betty Sharp Smith. These should be ordered directly from Ruth Bradley Holmes (1431 Valley Road, Bartlesville, OK 74003). Prices are $12 for a regular set, $14 for a deluxe set, shipping included. Regular and deluxe tapes are identical, but the regular set is packed in boxes suitable for storage with other cassette tapes, while the deluxe set is packed in an album suitable for storage with books on a shelf. Mrs. Holmes will also sell a copy of Beginning Cherokee with a regular set of tapes for a combined price of $26, shipping included. Other Cherokee materials, including a tribally sponsored dictionary compiled by William Pulte and Durbin Feeling ($16.95) are available from The Cherokee Gift Shop, Box 948, Tahlequah, OK 74465. They also have a hymnbook and New Testament entirely in Cherokee (approx $5 each), and some Cherokee gospel music tapes. [Dec. 1988]
• Bacone College has recently published The Cherokee Verb, by Durbin D. Feeling (95 pp., $25), a structured approach to learning the basic inflections of the Cherokee verb. Feeling analyses Cherokee verbs in terms of subject/object pronouns, prefixes, stems, and tense suffixes. An index provides easy reference. Order from: Indian University Press, Bacone College, Muskogee, OK 74403 (tel: 918/683-4581). Add $4 for postage. [July 1994]
• Despite its off-putting title, How To Talk Trash In Cherokee (English by Don Grooms, Cherokee by John Oocumma) is a useful primer of some common words and phrases in Cherokee. It teaches by using humor, and is full of amusing stuff. (A chapter entitled "How To Pick A Fight In Cherokee" tells you how to say, "I'm sorry you broke your hand on me"). Order from: Downhome Publishing Company, 1618 NW 6th Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32603 (or Rt. 1, Box 109, Cherokee, NC 28719). [July 1994]
• Audio-Forum (96 Broad St., Guilford, CT 06437; 1-800-243-1234) offers: Holmes & Smith, Beginning Cherokee and 2 cassettes (3 hr.) for $39 [Order # AFCK10]; The Rabbitt and the Bear, and Why the Hog's Tail is Flat, 30 min. cassette, Cherokee on one side and an English version on the other for $11.95 [Order # C19202]. [Jan. 1993]
• Babs Woods (e-mail: babs@jfwhome.funhouse.com) has the following suggestions for people interested in finding books, tapes and other materials on Cherokee (both dialects). She recommends writing for their catalogues. - Western Trading Post, P.O. Box 9070, Denver, CO 80209-0070 (tel: 1-800-373-9378); Cherokee Publications, P.O. Box 256, Cherokee, North Carolina 28719 (tel: 704/488-2988 or 497-2202); Cherokee Nation Gift Shop, The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, P.O.Box 948, Tahlehquah, OK 74465 ( tel: 918/456-2199 or 1-800-256-2123). [Jan. 1993]
• Al Webster (P.O. Box 690146, Tulsa, OK 74169-0146; tel: 918/660-0679; e-mail: awebster@holonet.net) has a Cherokee font package available (for US $185) that includes: (1) Two PS/TT fonts, CWY oldstyle, historically accurate to the 1820's lead type, and CWY syllabary (same as oldstyle but slightly modernized). (2) Text entry utilities for Cherokee and non-Cherokee speakers. (If you know the phonetic spellings, you can type the spelling and the correct Cherokee character will appear. For example, typing "tsalagi" will produce the Cherokee characters CWY). (3) A HyperCard-based syllabary tutorial (with digitized pronunciations from Durbin Feeling, the author of the latest Cherokee-English dictionary). This font package is in use in schools in Oklahoma and in the Cherokee One Feather newspaper in North Carolina. The pronunciations in the tutorial are being modified for the North Carolina dialect. Plans include Windows versions of all these products. The fonts are available now for Windows, but without phonetic text entry. Webster also has in development a Cherokee Talking Dictionary (with digitized pronunciations)---small version for hard disks, full version on CD-ROM---and a Cherokee Grammar (that may be marketed through the Cherokee Nation). [Jan. 1993]
• Cherokee National Museum (Tahlequah, Oklahoma) sells two publications on Cherokee:
  • Cherokee Study Course. Prentice Robinson. This single, 60-minute cassette contains enough material for sixteen lessons. It is in a workbook style with lessons and tests to work and a single cassette for easy learning. $29.95
  • Cherokee Made Easy. Prentice Robinson. This collection consists of three cassettes of 60 minutes each, and a booklet containing over 200 vocabulary words, conversational phrases, and sentences, and instructions on how to use the Cherokee Syllabary to read and write. The words and phrases are given first in English and then three times in Cherokee, to allow for time to practice. $49.95 for the set.
  Order from: Cherokee National Museum Books, P.O.Box 515, Tahlequah, OK 74465-0515; tel: 918/456-6007; fax: 918/456-6165; website: http://www.powersource.com/powersource/heritage/books.html