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A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE SUBMISSION OF A SPECIAL GRANT APPLICATION TO THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE FOR ESTABLISHING AN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT DOCUMENTING CHEROKEE CULTURAL TRADITIONS
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WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation since time immemorial has exercised the sovereign rights of self-government in behalf of the Cherokee people;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation is a federally recognized Indian Nation with a historic and continual government to government relationship with the United States of America;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee people will always thrive as long as they uphold their sacred language and lifeways, which were given to them by the creator;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation is dedicated to ensuring that Cherokee Language is secured as well as perpetuated;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation is dedicated to maintaining and preserving their traditional cultural way of life and understanding;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation is dedicated to providing the best education possible, entirely immersed with Cherokee language, history and lifeways;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation is dedicated to instilling and strengthening cultural practices and traditional cultural ways of life;
WHEREAS, the tribe is committed to preserving and transmitting their culture to future generation;
WHEREAS, the National Park Service has provided the opportunity for $40,000 grant monies to support the development of Oral History programs and Documentation of Cultural Traditions for tribal entities and for indexing, cataloguing and duplicating existing collection of audio and video materials in the Cherokee Nation Archives;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation supports the initiative to train and utilize Cherokee speaking students from their Immersion School, Sequoyah Schools and Cherokee Education Degree students from Northeastern State University to conduct oral history interviews and demonstrations with tribal elders;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation supports the initiative to index and catalogue all the oral history and language tapes and videos in their Communication Department Archives and to secure recommendations for proper preservation of the materials;
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation intends to utilize the professional knowledge and expertise of faculty members from Oklahoma State University in their Oral History Department to consult and direct the professional standards and activities of this oral and video history project.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CHEROKEE NATION, that the Council approves the $40,000 application to the National Park Service for the 2010 Historic Preservation Fund to Indian Tribes for the purpose of collecting oral and video histories of Cherokee speaking elder tribal members through interviews from Cherokee student-native speakers enrolled in the Nation's Immersion School, Sequoyah High School and Northeastern State University, and for the indexing, cataloguing and development of recommendations for preservation of existing oral and video materials in the archives of the Nation.