Cherokee Preservation Foundation

Cherokee Preservation Foundation Announces More than $3.6 Million in Grants

Most of the New Grants Support Heritage Tourism
and Language Revitalization Efforts

CHEROKEE, NC, March 27, 2007 – Cherokee Preservation Foundation (CPFdn) announced today that it has awarded 29 grants totaling $3.6 million during its spring cycle, primarily to support the major Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian (EBCI) cultural attractions’ heritage programming efforts and to facilitate Cherokee language revitalization efforts targeting Tribal members of all ages.

Major new support of heritage tourism includes:

A $500,000 grant to continue an award winning marketing campaign that spotlights the Cherokee Historical Association’s (CHA) Unto These Hills production and Oconaluftee Indian Village, Qualla Arts & Crafts Mutual, and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The campaign has been recognized by the Southeast Tourism Society.
A nearly $129,000 grant to offer theatre training to local performers that will help prepare them for involvement in the new, more culturally-oriented production of Unto These Hills, the popular retelling of the Cherokee people’s story. The grant will also support professional development for CHA’s staff and board, and provide ticketing for local school systems to attend CHA cultural attractions.
A $75,000 grant will enable training a cadre of cultural ambassadors to enhance the major Cherokee cultural attractions and the making of traditional Cherokee clothing for the ambassadors.
A nearly $120,000 grant will support continuation and expansion of the Festival of Native Peoples, which features performers and artisans from tribes across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The 2007 festival will take place in July.
A $127,000 grant will support an effort led by the new Cherokee Chamber of Commerce to stimulate tourism by creating a clearly identifiable “Cultural District” within Cherokee with the help of signage and banners. This “Cultural District,” as defined by the Heart of Cherokee Committee, includes the Cherokee Museum, Qualla Arts & Crafts, Cherokee Historical Association, EBCI fairground, the Welcome Center, Mountainside Theatre, Oconaluftee Indian Village and the Nundayeli Trail.
A $15,000 grant will support an initiative by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian to translate Cherokee literary works into the Cherokee language. The first of these is Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier.
Major support from Cherokee Preservation Foundation for Cherokee language revitalization efforts includes:
A $206,000 grant to develop curriculum and learning materials for language immersion programs, in which students hear and learn their native language during the entire experience, and more conventional community-based language learning programs.
A nearly $85,000 grant to enable the development of a second-level language course that will allow higher level Cherokee speakers to advance their skills more quickly, and to support a Cherokee Language Immersion Camp in the Snowbird Community. The Kituwah Preservation and Education Program and Western Carolina University are in the process of developing a comprehensive Cherokee language revitalization initiative, and the program is being guided by their recognition that language learning must come from the community in order to have an impact.
A $55,000 grant that will enable the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program to develop an operating plan for the Kituwah Academy, a planned facility that will house language immersion programs for children from infancy through fifth grade.
A nearly $235,000 grant to Western Carolina University to create materials for all levels of Cherokee language learners, and to develop a Cherokee language degree program and textbooks for this program.

About Cherokee Preservation Foundation

Cherokee Preservation Foundation (www.cpfdn.org) was established on November 14, 2000, as part of the Second Amendment to the Tribal-State Compact between the EBCI and the State of North Carolina. It is an independent nonprofit foundation funded by the EBCI from gaming revenues generated by the Tribe. CPFdn is not part of or associated with any for-profit gaming entity.

Since CPFdn’s inception in 2000, it has made 375 grants totaling nearly $31 million to EBCI and regional projects and programs that address cultural preservation, economic development and job creation, and environmental renewal and protection. Every dollar of CPFdn support has been matched by $1.38 in secured grants or other funding or in-kind resources, making CPFdn’s total contribution to the region more than $73 million.