词汇大师-- the Most Important Part of Being Cherokee

　　In 1838, the Cherokee Indians were forced to give up their land in the eastern United States and migrate to what is now Oklahoma. Over 4,000 died on the journey known as the Trail of Tears, but some Cherokee remained behind, hidden in the mountains of Appalachia. They survived as a people, and they are now taking steps to see that their language survives as well. VOA's Susan Logue visited the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.
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　　Six young children - four girls and two boys - sit on the floor looking up at their teacher seated in a chair. An older woman with streaks¹ of gray in the long, straight hair pulled back from her face, she holds up flashcards with colors and words spelled out in distinctive² lettering. Her students are learning Cherokee, the language of their ancestors, but a language many of their own parents didn't speak as children.
RENISSA WALKER: "I'm still learning. I'm a second language learner."
Renissa Walker is in charge of the language, history and cultural preservation³ program for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
RENISSA WALKER: "It's a very, very difficult language. In Cherokee, there are so many verb tenses and tones and inflections."
Cherokee also has a unique syllabary with 85 characters, each representing a syllable⁴. It was created by a tribal⁵ member, Sequoyah, and adopted by the Cherokee in 1825. Walker says, like many languages, Cherokee is not always easily translated.
RENISSA WALKER: "There are appropriate ways of Cherokee living that are embedded⁶ into the language. Because we don't use the language in everyday living, because there isn't the trans-generational passing of the language down to children, those appropriate ways of Cherokee living are lost."
Like Walker, Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is among those adults learning Cherokee.
CHIEF MICHELE HICKS: "My grandmother was fluent. My dad understands. He speaks some, but he only taught in bits and pieces, so that is how I learned. I'm still learning. I'm not fluent, but I know a lot of phrases, I know a lot of words."
Chief Hicks has made language instruction a priority of his administration. The tribe estimates there are three hundred fluent speakers among the population of fourteen thousand. The majority are under five or over fifty, like Renissa Walker's mother, Myrtle Driver:
MYRTLE DRIVER: "I think the most important part of being Cherokee is the language. When I speak my own language, I'm speaking from the heart. When I'm speaking English, from here."
Driver brings her finger to her temple as she says this. She was raised by her grandparents, who would not allow her to speak English in the home. Her daughter Renissa was raised by a white family. Driver says, at the time, it seemed the best choice for both her and her daughter.
MYRTLE DRIVER: "In order for me to go to school so I could provide for my children, I had to put her with a trustworthy foster home, and she liked it. Even though I wanted her to know who she was, that she was Cherokee. She had an advantage being in that foster home, with education. She has a far superior education than most that grow up around here."
But schools have improved here. A 1988 law gave American Indian tribes the authority to establish casinos on their lands. Much of the money that comes from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian's casino is funneled⁷ into education, including language classes.
When she thinks of the young children learning Cherokee today, Myrtle Driver is optimistic about the future of her tribe and its language. To ensure that generations to come would have literature to read in their language, she translated into Cherokee a portion of Charles Frasier's novel "Thirteen Moons." It tells of the forced migration⁸ of the Cherokee people in 1838.
MYRTLE DRIVER: "He wrote it as if he experienced it. He wrote about some of the things that actually happened to the Cherokee people. Now we have our immersion⁹ children that will one day read it, and they will read it in the Cherokee way, as if grandma were sitting there telling them what actually happened."
They will read it with their hearts as well as their minds. Susan Logue, VOA News, Cherokee, North Carolina.

1 streaks   

n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• streaks of grey in her hair 她头上的绺绺白发
• Bacon has streaks of fat and streaks of lean. 咸肉中有几层肥的和几层瘦的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

3 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

4 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

5 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

6 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

7 funneled   

漏斗状的

参考例句：

• The crowd funneled through the hall. 群众从走廊中鱼贯而过。
• The large crowd funneled out of the gates after the football match. 足球赛后大群人从各个门中涌出。

8 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

9 immersion   

n.沉浸；专心

参考例句：

• The dirt on the bottom of the bath didn't encourage total immersion.浴缸底有污垢，不宜全身浸泡于其中。
• The wood had become swollen from prolonged immersion.因长时间浸泡，木头发胀了。