TULSA – Horton Records in collaboration with Jeremy Charles, Cherokee Nation citizen and filmmaker, announced on April 13 the production of “Anvdvnelisgi,” a groundbreaking, contemporary music album with original songs all performed in the Cherokee language.
Charles, owner of FireThief Productions, said in a press conference that the idea for the album came about when CN Language Department Executive Editor Howard Paden pitched the idea for a Cherokee language album.
“He showed me a music video of a popular Maori singer doing a music video,” Charles said. “The Maoris have an amazing ecosystem of film and music that a lot of our nations around here need to emulate. He said ‘Jeremy, we need this.’ By the end of the day I had a list of 15 Cherokee citizen artists and a plan. That was only a year ago. And that’s why we’re here today.”
The album will feature 12 emerging and seasoned Cherokee artists ranging from 14 to 50 years old.
“Its hip hop, Americana, pop, indie rock, country, metal and reggae all performed in the language,” Charles said.
“Anvdvnelisgi” is a Cherokee word that translates to ‘performers’ in English.
“As of right now there are few than 2,000 fluent Cherokee speakers,” Charles said. “It’s kind of crazy, and COVID has taken a pretty bad toll on our speaking population. In the last decade I would say, the Cherokee Nation has made a concerted effort, a monumental effort, to preserve and protect the language into the future.”
In an effort to preserve the Cherokee language in a new way, “Anvdvnelisgi” is the first of its kind.
“We’re in a time that we’ve got to turn over every leaf when it comes to Cherokee language revitalization,” Paden said. “We’ve lost a lot of speakers. In 2019 we lost 119; 2020 we lost 134; last year we lost 150. We believe when the elders tell us that if we lost this, then the world ends. We have a group of people that’s working night and day on this that comes with that level of intensity.”
The album features artists such as Zebadiah Nofire, Lillian Charles and Kalyn Fay, all whom performed live at the press conference. Several of the artists worked for months with Cherokee translators to translate their songs.
Nofire, of Tahlequah, is a comedian who often incorporates original hip-hop parodies into his comedy routines. He performed his original song titled “The Baker.” He is also a graduate of the tribe’s Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program.
“It’s the first song I’ve written in Cherokee, so that was an interesting experience,” Nofire said. “The rhyme schemes are different, and the rhythm of the language is different, so it was really challenging but fun.”
He added this is a way to show that Cherokee music exists outside of traditional hymns.
“This project is a good way to show people that we can do different things outside of just hymns, which is about as far as our musical genres go in the Cherokee language,” Nofire said. “I hope that maybe I’ll help get the ball rolling, and someone could say, ‘Hey, I can write a song.’”
Lillian, 14, the daughter of Jeremy Charles, contributed an original song she wrote when she was 12 called “Circus,” which is of the Goth-pop genre. She worked with language translators Kathy Sierra and Bobbie Smith to translate her lyrics.
“There weren’t any revisions and it really did flow,” Lillian said. “I have realized how beautiful the language is. It’s amazing.”
The album was created in collaboration with Horton records and with support through the Zarrow Families Foundation Commemoration Fund.
“We have discovered that injustice can be social, it can be economic, it can political. But it can also be cultural,” Clarence Boyd, Zarrow Families Foundation Commemoration said.
