Cherokee Education:: Path to Autonomy and Sovereignty

The Cherokee education system, which includes the first female secondary school west of the Mississippi River, is a compelling topic and one that demands native voices. Assimilation is a term most commonly used with the formal education of American Indians. However, the Cherokee people chose to establish an independent education system to protect their cultural and political sovereignty. Adaption is a more accurate description for the purpose of the institutions the Cherokee people funded and built. This analysis is an examination of the Cherokee education system, established and funded solely by the Cherokee Nation, and its relationship to political and cultural sovereignty. The author is Cherokee. She evaluates the current trend of placing American Indian education in the Eurocentric context of acculturation and assimilation and concludes that the Cherokee system does not fit the popular paradigm. Originally, this manuscript was destined to be submitted as an MA thesis, but because the author's thesis committee members insisted that she use the more acceptable term of assimilation and to find more acceptable sources, she elected to pull out of the program. Instead of an MA thesis, she produced an independent scholarly examination of the Cherokee education system.