George and Ann RichardsCivil War Era Center

The Cherokee language represents the heart and soul of Cherokee culture. Today, with fewer than 200 first language speakers remaining among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ population of 18,000 citizens, the language is severely endangered. In this talk, Dr. Frey discusses the many driving factors of the language’s endangerment and how to address those factors for an effective program of language revitalization.

Dr. Ben Frey is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. His research focuses on language revitalization and the link between social networks, institutional structures, and language behavior over time.

This talk is part of the Many Wests book series and will generate a book tentatively titled, Rising Above: Language Revitalization in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, published by the University of Nebraska Press. The talk is sponsored by the McCabe-Greer Professorship, Department of History, and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center.