On Dec. 6, 2014, Tulsa City-County Library inducted the Cherokee Nation into the Library Hall of Fame in honor of the Cherokee Nation’s outstanding commitment and longstanding support of the Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Library Trust, and for its diligence to revitalize its native language.
The Tulsa City-County Library and the Tulsa Library Trust established the Hall of Fame in 1982 to recognize and honor individuals and organizations who have provided leadership and made exemplary contributions of time, talent and energy toward the development of the Tulsa City-County Library.
Since Tulsa City-County Library opened its American Indian Resource Center 15 years ago, the Cherokee Nation has been there every step of the way, supporting the center, library and community by providing presenters for educational programs as well as monetary donations to purchase resources for the library’s collections, including two recent donations of $500 each for the Judy Z. Kishner and Collinsville libraries.
In 2006, Tulsa City-County Library honored the Cherokee Nation’s first female principal chief, Wilma Mankiller, by inducting her into the Circle of Honor. Induction into the Circle of Honor is a celebration of the honoree’s actions in the face of adversity, commitment to the preservation of American Indian culture and legacy for future generations.
Thanks to the hard work of the Cherokee Nation and American Indian Resource Center, Mango Languages will begin offering a Cherokee language course, beginning in early 2015. The Cherokee Nation is helping to develop interactive lessons and providing native speakers to record each lesson that will be offered through this user-friendly language instruction tool.
“We are excited to have helped bring the Cherokee language project to fruition and look forward to the day, coming soon, when customers in Tulsa and across the United States can begin to learn Cherokee through Mango’s free language-learning app available from their local public library’s website,” said Gary Shaffer, Tulsa City-County Library CEO.