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TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Cherokee Heritage Center will host a 15-week long interdisciplinary, college-level humanities course, with college credit being offered through the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The course, sponsored by the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma, and the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation, is free and books and childcare will be provided as well as money to cover transportation costs. The class is open to any Cherokee tribal member 18 or older. Special consideration will be given to those tribal members ages 18-35, who may not otherwise attend college.

Course topics that will be covered include: Cherokee history, philosophy, political theory, Cherokee language structure and logic, art history and architecture, and literature. The course will also examine the interplay between Cherokee and Western ideology, which has gone into making the Cherokee Nation what it is today.

The teachers for the class include Dr. Howard Meredith, Julia Coates, Eli Nofire, Damon Hall, Mary Adair, and Dennis Sixkiller. Guest speakers will also be available.

The class, called the Cherokee Clemente Course, will begin on Monday, April 30 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The class will be held on Monday nights and will last fifteen weeks and will conclude on August 6.

The Clemente Project, developed by writer Earl Shorris in New York City in 1995, is based on the principle that in order to fully participate as a citizen in any society, one must be taught to engage in the process of political interaction on all levels, from the family to the federal government. The study of humanities becomes the vehicle through which this process can be learned.

The first Clemente Course was held in New York City in 1995, at the Roberto Clemente Family Guidance Center. In the past five years, Clemente Courses have been taught in nearly two dozen locations throughout the country, as well as in Canada and Mexico. The first Clemente Course targeted specifically for Native Americans was taught in Seattle, Washington. Since then, several Native groups have adopted and adapted the curriculum to fit their own cultural needs. These groups include the Yup’ik of Alaska, the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and the Cherokee and Kiowa of Oklahoma.

For more information, contact Stephanie Snyder, VISTA Volunteer, at the Cherokee Heritage Center, phone: 918-456-6007.