I'm an Indian Outlaw...

I've spent the past month in Oklahoma with 10 other students studying the Cherokee language. It's been quite a time, but bar none the best part was meeting a laundromat owner who moonlighted as a stunt double in the Last of the Mohicans (how do you forget your camera at a time like that?!) However, here's a pictorial tour of what I did catch on film.

Ok, not exactly a "Welcome" sign to Cherokeeland. I wasn't sure what sort of an education I would be receiving for the next 6 weeks. It was only a while later when I found out there was also a "Whitekiller, OK" that I got really nervous.

My breath-taking campus on which I studied and slept. What could possibly make this 5-star resort more attractive?....

... being situated in a cemetery! (location, location, location)...

... gourmet dining...

...and beautiful sleeping facilities. Here is a hole in the wall right by my head, where one morning I awoke to a bright-eyed squirrel staring at me, two inches from my noggin- I hadn't wet the bed in years too... that's why I got this guard-eagle: to save me from future attacks.

It wasn't all bad though. This is my partner and I (no, not THAT kind of partner) with our language helpers. (They make great fry bread, and had Direct TV!)

This is where we'd sit for two hours every morning, picking our language helper's brain, attempting to gather language to analyze. It was a crazy language. "Łɑ yidodɑstiŁʌ·Nni̜" is how you'd say "you will not sleep", but only if you were talking to two people. If you were talking to three people you'd say "Łɑ yidodɑǰiŁʌ·Nni̜"- obviously. This is helpful, because I'm often telling people not to sleep, in Cherokee. My favorite expression though, was ǰiskɑyʌ, which means "I am the man!"

After our morning sessions with the language helper we'd come back home and spend the rest of the day analyzing the data we got. It was nice to be able to work as a team, although as you can see, I'd often hang back and let the rest of them do the hard stuff.

I don't know which is more disturbing- the problem on the white board or the object in your face in front of it.

Eventually the language would burn your brain until spinning around in circles at Mach 3 was the only way to maintain sanity.

Well, that's all for now. "dodʌdɑɡohʌ̜i"!! (see you later) from me and the dɑloniɡe̜ uskolʌ̜ ɡɑliǰo·hɩdʌ̜ ɑskɑyʌ̜ (orange fat man). I will be in Oklahoma through the 17th of November, then it's back up to school in Missouri until Christmas, when I'll finally be done with school! Then it's up to Indiana where I'll spend some time with my family. I hope to be back in Alaska in February, and we'll see where it goes from there!

iǰedo̜lɑhi̜ (come back)!!