Local universities are also working to promote the native culture. Both UNC Asheville and Western Carolina University have established Cherokee studies programs.
“We offer Cherokee language now for the first time in our institution’s history, and almost every Cherokee student on campus is in that class,” notes Trey Adcock, UNCA’s director of American Indian outreach and the faculty adviser for the Native American Student Association, a campus group. “Many of them have shown a renewed interest in things like traditional Cherokee dress, dance, song and ceremony. I think it kind of flips the argument on its head that if kids go away, they lose interest in the culture: If anything, what I’m seeing is that it pulls them closer to those cultural lineages.”
And when non-native students ask Adcock how they can help support the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, his advice is simple: “Know the history of this country in relation to indigenous people. I think just listening to native people themselves — what they need, what they think — is a good place to start.”
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