These hands-on workshops, classes, lectures, and events exist for tribal members to deepen their connection to Cherokee culture, traditions, and craft.

For more information about MotCP’s Community Learning opportunities, contact [email protected].

Created in partnership with Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), MotCP board member and author of the award-winning novel Even As We Breathe, this series of workshops offers enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and other federally recognized tribes access to high-quality writing instruction from the world’s top Indigenous writers at no cost.

Following two successful years—2023’s workshop welcomed visiting authors and workshop leaders Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee Nation), Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee Nation), and Mary Leauna Christensen (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), with 2024’s lineup including Oskar Hokeah (Cherokee Nation, Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma) and Christine Day (Upper Skagit Indian Tribe)—MotCP is taking 2025 to reflect, water the seeds of this free community learning opportunity, and assess how to best serve our Cherokee writing community in the future.

“It’s been thrilling to see the empowering opportunities that Confluence attendees are capitalizing on, both to enhance their own writing journeys as well as to share their work with the world,” says Clapsaddle. “I look forward to this next phase of intentional growth that will foster these opportunities through the building of programming that best meets the needs and desires of or community of writers.”

For updates on community learning opportunities at MotCP, subscribe to our email newsletter and follow the Museum on social media. This page will be updated as new opportunities are announced. Plus: we want to hear from you! How can MotCP best support you as a writer? Share your ideas with us by emailing [email protected].

Kathi Littlejohn, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has been telling Cherokee stories for more than 40 years at events, festivals, and schools. She has been leading Cherokee history tours for five years to historically and culturally significant places in Western North Carolina. She has produced four CDs of Cherokee stories: ‘Cherokee Legends,’ Volume I, II, and III and ‘Cherokee Stories of the Supernatural,’ available at select gift shops. She also completed a series of YouTube videos named “Cherokee History and Stories, “What Happened Here?” View the full schedule on the Museum’s events calendar.

Confluence: An Indigenous Writers’ Workshop

Storytelling Workshop with Loren Waters

Baby Wrapping Workshop with Jenn Bird

Beaded Graduation Cap Workshop with Jenn Bird

Copper Earring Workshop with Nathan Bush

Corn Husk Doll Workshop with Nichole Efird

Makers’ Circle with Cannupa Hanska Luger

Polymer Clay Mask Making with Michelle Long

Puckertoe Moccasin Workshop with Evan Mathis

Ribbon Skirt Workshop with Alitama Perkins

Shellcarving Workshop with Nancy Pheasant

Silk Screen Printing Workshop with Rhiannon Skye Tafoya and Jakeli Swimmer