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"Jennie Whitekiller, Immersion School Student" Jennie Whitekiller is all smiles when showing off her new classroom to her family at the recently held open house where the Cherokee Nation Immersion School program celebrated their new facilities. With a spacious new addition to one of its facilities, the Cherokee Nation is paving the way to allow more students to learn about the Cherokee culture and language. The Cherokee Nation’s Immersion School expanded this month, adding a new 6,000 square foot building that allows more office space for staff, including two new classrooms. It also provides a large multi-purpose room with an expandable wall to use as a divider when needed. An open house was recently held to celebrate the new space. “Having this new facility allows us to do many things we have not been able to do in the past,” said Samantha Benn-Duke, senior director of culture and language for Cherokee Nation. “We plan to begin hosting regular morning and afternoon assemblies and we will also be able to increase our after-school programmed activities.” A cultural playground area is in the works as well. The dirt work has begun for the project and once completed there will be a garden with traditional foods, a sunflower patch and a brush arbor, all useful for hands-on learning. A brand new outdoor classroom area will also be a part of the expansion project. The tribe’s Immersion School currently starts at pre-school and goes up to the fourth grade, with 85 students enrolled. Next year there are plans to add a fifth grade to the school, with expectations from officials that it will bring the total to around 100 students for the program. Cherokee Nation Immersion School students are taught the same basic lessons as students in public schools, with an important and unique difference: lessons and all discussion of those lessons are conducted entirely in the Cherokee language and its written counterpart, the Cherokee syllabary. No English is spoken, creating a rich learning environment and helping preserve the Cherokee language, which like many Native American languages, is endangered. For more information about the program please call 918-207-4900.

Related Cherokee Nation contact information:

Mike Miller, Cherokee Nation Director of Communications Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2210) Fax: 918-458-5580 E-mail: Communications@cherokee.org Larry Daugherty, Advertising Manager Cherokee Nation - Public Affairs Phone 918-456-0671 (Ex.2324) E-mail: ldaugherty@cherokee.org

Steven Swogger, Agriculture Liaison Natural Resources Department Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2546) FAX: 918-458-7673 E-mail: sswogger@cherokee.org Bradley D. Peak, Cherokee Nation Natural Resources Specialist Phone: 918-456-0671 (ex.2843) E-mail: bpeak@cherokee.org