Cherokee Culture & Travel

Cherokee composer Anjelica Lindsey’s Eroica for Wind Trio debuts Nov. 14 at Houston’s Good Medicine Indigenous Music Festival.

Cherokee Nation citizen Tom Belt warns that losing the Cherokee language means losing a unique way of seeing the world. With only about 140 fluent speakers remaining in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, preservation efforts at Western Carolina University are working to turn the tide. Through classroom study, art, and music, the university’s Cherokee Language Program is helping to keep a 13,000-year-old culture and worldview alive.

Cherokee filmmaker Christopher Corsy’s Siren of the Wood brings the Deer Woman legend to life in a fully Cherokee-language film. Produced by Native Fable Movie Production with an all-Native cast and crew, the film blends horror and heritage while promoting language revitalization. Its festival debut marks a growing movement of Indigenous filmmakers creating original, culture-rooted stories beyond documentaries.