The project team includes a core team and an advisory board that brings together citizens of the Cherokee nations, archivists, and linguists with deep knowledge of indigenous languages. We also have teams of librarians, teachers, and translation specialists from the Cherokee nations.
Core Team
Founder and project leader of DAILP, Ellen Cushman is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, with research and publications focusing on literacy studies, decolonizing approaches to digital archive development, and language perseverance. A former Cherokee Nation Sequoyah Commission member, she has worked with the Cherokee Nation’s CoPartners and the Johnson-O’Malley Program in developing educational resources. Her research and experience with the social and cultural conditions where Cherokee language teaching and learning occur drive DAILP’s pilot project of Cherokee manuscript translation. She leads the DAILP team to ensure that our efforts are animated by the indigenous peoples with whom the team works.
Julia Flanders is the Director of the Digital Scholarship Group (DSG) at the Northeastern University Library and a Professor of Practice in the Department of English. She has extensive experience with design, development, and long-term sustainability for large-scale digital projects, and her recent work has also given her a deep understanding of the imperatives and challenges of working towards decolonial approaches to digital archives and community-led development processes. Her expertise in large-scale project management and her familiarity with modeling complex textual data prove invaluable to the design of the data representation of transcription and translation data.
Naomi Trevino is the Assistant Project Manager for DAILP. In her role, Naomi plans DAILP’s long-term software milestones, trains new software engineers, develops steering documentation, and manages DAILP’s cloud infrastructure. They are also responsible for planning new collection infrastructure with Cherokee community members and partner libraries as well as for coordinating technical partners within Northeastern’s IT and Library Services.
Megan Cassidy has helped develop the CWKW website, contributing to the perfection of the website format and editing for any mistakes. She is a first-year undergrad student at Northeastern University, studying English. She hopes to pursue a career in education and is fascinated with all things language and literature! She is so happy to be a part of DAILP as she feels great admiration for the Cherokee language and Native American culture!
Molly Lane is a second year student at Northeastern studying English, Psychology, and Writing. She contributes to graphic design for outward facing posters and videos that facilitate learning and digital integration for DAILP.
Nop Lertsumitkul is an Interdisciplinary Software Engineer working on DAILP’s backend, with goals to transition to a full stack engineer. He enjoys the satisfaction of making software to solve annoying problems with elegant solutions. He plans to continue working in the software engineering in the future. He also has an interests in business with which his major is combined, as well as economics, and his favorite drink is coffee.
Kacey McNamara is an undergraduate student at Northeastern University studying English and journalism. She contributes to the maintenance and continued improvement of DAILP’s website. She is thrilled to be a part of the DAILP team and to help support indigenous language preservation and persistence!
Jae Messersmith is a Research Assistant at DAILP working to update and improve content on the website as the project continues to expand. She is an undergraduate linguistics major at Northeastern University passionate about preserving the world’s languages, language policy, and the use of technology to protect and teach language and culture. She has experience with field linguistics, event planning, and project management, and hopes to be a language advocate all her life.
Sarah Oosahwee is enrolled member of the Cherokee, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations from Tahelquah, Oklahoma. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma and earned her M.S. in (Cultural) Resource Management from Central Washington University. A life-long learner of Cherokee, she completed the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program in the spring of 2022, where she continues to help other second language learners in their journey.
Hailey Punis has recently joined the DAILP team as a Web Content Developer and is an undergraduate English student with Art and Writing minors. She is using her writing and creative background to highlight DAILP’s members, achievements, and thanking those who make DAILP’s work possible. She also carries out project management for the team.
Advisory Board
Ernestine Berry, a former public school teacher and administrator, is an enrolled United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB) tribal member. She is also a former tribally-elected Council Secretary. Ernestine is the Director of the John Hair Cultural Center & Museum (JHCCM) which also houses the tribal archives and the research library. In 2016, the JHCCM initiated an Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-supported project to find, retrieve, and translate syllabary papers/documents into English. The resulting products of this effort (more than 300 pages) are on display at the JHCCM “Missing Pieces” Exhibit and available for public review. The current Keetoowah Language Revitalization Project, supported by IMLS began in 2020 is a community-based language project.
Brian Carpenter is the Curator of Native American Materials at the American Philosophical Society, where he has worked with more than fifty Native communities throughout North America to engage their participation in developing the policies and practices for the handling of indigenous materials. As a member of our Advisory Board, his expertise in working with indigenous materials and in building relationships of reciprocity with Native nations is crucial.
Lisa Conathan is the Head of Special Collections at the Williams College Library. She has worked with Cherokee speakers and communities and has collaborated with tribal leaders to identify sacred and medical texts from archival holdings. As a member of our Advisory Board, her joint expertise in linguistics and archives is crucial in bridging these two key aspects of the project.
Eva Garroutte is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and is currently a Research Professor of Sociology at Boston College. A second-language learner, she has special interest in the translation of historical, Cherokee-language documents and their use in teaching. Her background related to Native American language, culture, identity, and health have facilitated past collaboration with Cherokee Nation Health Services on several federally-funded projects.
Clara Proctor, a former public school teacher, is an enrolled United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB) tribal member. As a native first-language speaker, Clara is both fluent and literate in the Keetoowah Cherokee language and is a UKB certified language instructor. She received the 2018 UKB Tradition Keepers Award for her language expertise and for her activities in sharing the language with others. She was a translator on the 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-supported, John Hair Cultural Center Missing Pieces Project to find, retrieve, and translate syllabary papers/documents into English. Clara currently works for the Eastern Oklahoma District Library system as a certified library clerk. She also works with the IMLS-supported, UKB John Hair Cultural Center Keetoowah Language Revitalization Project as a language curriculum developer, translator, and instructor.
John Ross is a Translator Specialist with the Cherokee Nation Language Program. He is a fullblood Cherokee and is bi-literate in the Cherokee language, as well as a Certified Cherokee Language Instructor. In 2014, he was named a National Treasure in the Cherokee Language by the Cherokee Nation. As a member of our Advisory Board and our team of language experts, he brings a depth of knowledge and teaching expertise to the project’s design.
Librarians
Rob Chavez is the Senior Digital Scholarship Group Developer in the Digital Infrastructures department of the Northeastern University Library. He joined Northeastern in February 2020, and has been working with our project ever since. Previously, Rob had been a Senior Content Solutions Architect at the MA Medical Society.
David Cliff is the Senior Digital Library Developer in Library Technology Services at the Northeastern University Library. His expertise in all levels of data-driven web application development and architectures is of value to this project as we expand the Charon system to accommodate the complexities of Linguistic Linked Open Data, community-driven workflows, and language learning and translation interfaces.
Greg McClellan is the Digital Scholarship Programmer/Analyst in the Library Technology Services group at the Northeastern University Library. He has extensive experience as a systems librarian and developer as well as with open-source software development projects. With his expertise, he is responsible for integrating IIIF with our core system components to support the development of transcription, translation, and language learning features.
Rose Miron is the Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library. Her research explores Indigenous interventions in public history within the Northeast and the Great Lakes regions and American Indian nationalism and activism in the twentieth century. She is working on a manuscript that explores how Native people use archives to change the way Indigenous history is accessed and produced.
Translation Specialists
John Chewey grew up in Jay, Oklahoma speaking the Keetowah Cherokee Language in a household of 10 where all spoke the language. John attended the Oaks Mission School during his early years and graduated from Jay Ok. public school in 1965. Following his schooling, John began working as an iron worker in Kansas City before receiving a draft notice and then serving in the Vietnam War until 1968. After returning to the US, John became very involved with the (AIM) American Indian Movement. He participated in the protest at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973. Following those events, he went on to marry Nancy Tyner (Chewey) (Cherokee/Shawnee). They raised 6 children together and now have 21 grandchildren, and over 21 great-grandchildren. During this time, he also kept his skill as a Ferrier (Horse Shoeing) and worked in leather, repairing boots and saddles. He always remembered his father telling him “don’t let them take your language.” At the age of 68, John began visiting a congregation in Westville, Oklahoma, teaching the language and continues to do so to this day with the Keetowah Cherokee Tribe in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Oleta Pritchett, a retired public school teacher and counselor, is an enrolled tribal member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB). As a native, first-language speaker, Oleta is fluent and literate in the Keetoowah Cherokee language and a UKB certified language instructor. She was a translator on the 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-supported, John Hair Cultural Center Missing Pieces Project to find, retrieve, and translate syllabary papers/documents into English. Oleta is currently working with the John Hair Cultural Center Keetoowah Language Revitalization Project as a language curriculum developer, instructor, and translator.
Clara Proctor, a former public school teacher, is an enrolled United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB) tribal member. As a native first-language speaker, Clara is both fluent and literate in the Keetoowah Cherokee language and is a UKB certified language instructor. She received the 2018 UKB Tradition Keepers Award for her language expertise and for her activities in sharing the language with others. She was a translator on the 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-supported, John Hair Cultural Center Missing Pieces Project to find, retrieve, and translate syllabary papers/documents into English. Clara currently works for the Eastern Oklahoma District Library system as a certified library clerk. She also works with the IMLS-supported, UKB John Hair Cultural Center Keetoowah Language Revitalization Project as a language curriculum developer, translator, and instructor.
Tyler Hodge is a Translation Specialist with the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma (UKB). He has completed training in Cherokee language instruction and has supported members of the Illinois River Cherokee Congregation in learning Cherokee. He is also a skilled machinist and mechanic.
Kyndal Aimerson is a Museum Assistant at the John Hair Cultural Center under the direction of Ernestine Berry. As a student she studies History, with a minor in Native American studies at Northeastern State University. As a member of the United Keetoowah Band, she spends her time learning her culture and her language and is an assistant to the UKB Language translators, always offering a helping hand.