Kevin Tafoya grew up hearing Cherokee all around him – his mother, a grandmother and grandfather, aunts and an uncle all spoke the language that now is teetering on the edge of extinction.
Yet his mother purposely didn’t teach him.
“She told us she had a hard time in school transitioning from Cherokee to English,” Tafoya said. “She didn’t want us to have the same problem so she never really taught us when we were younger.”
Now the 37-year-old wants something different for his 6-year-old son, Moke, and his 2-year-old daughter, Marijane. Both are enrolled at New Kituwah Academy, a Cherokee language immersion school...
Additional Information
Waggoner, Martha. "Hopes of preserving Cherokee language rest with children." US News. March 25, 2015. Article. (http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/03/25/hopes-of-preserving-cherokee..., accessed March 30, 2015)
