This dissertation examines the creation and performance of expressive vocal practices by Eastern Cherokees as they seek to revitalize the Cherokee language in North Carolina in the Eastern part of the United States. The Eastern Band of Cherokee of Indians is facing the impending loss of its heritage language due to a community-wide shift to English. To combat this loss, the community now operates a Cherokee language immersion school, New Kituwah Academy. This dissertation is based on ethnographic and linguistic data collected during the researcher’s five years as the music and art instructor at New Kituwah. Indigenous epistemologies of language and poetics are brought into discourse with methodological and analytical approaches in ethnomusicology and linguistic anthropology. Performative vocal practices are processes through which Eastern Cherokee speakers negotiate what it means to be “modern Kituwah citizens.” Contemporary Cherokee voices emerge from the ambiguities of poetic “language play” in speech and song. “Voice” is both a metaphorical representation of a Cherokee sovereign and an actual materiality produced by embodied, speaking, and singing subjects. The translation of new popular song texts into Cherokee is likewise explored as “working” or “playing” with language. Translation is a poetic process imbedded within broader socio-cultural systems of meaning and perception (ontologies). Translation and vocal play destabilize semantic connections and open up the possibility for alternative interpretations and meanings; they allow for sovereignty to flourish as Cherokees reimagine and reshape themselves and their world.

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become increasingly important for the preservation of cultural resources by tribal entities. This project serves as a platform for the management of archaeological site data on the Qualla Boundary to be used by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) members. Over the course of a year, data was gathered from various agencies in order to export and create geospatial data that can be visualized, analyzed, and managed using ArcGIS software. A map and detailed data set were created to provide the user with the locations and attributes of archaeological sites, which can be used by the EBCI THPO as a tool for archaeological research and to protect sites on the Qualla Boundary. Additionally, a preliminary settlement pattern study was performed for the broader Qualla Boundary, along with a more in-depth analysis of sites along the Oconaluftee River.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Oct. 22, 2009). Thesis advisor: Gerald F. Schroedl. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.