Indigenous Community

We have long welcomed Native American and indigenous students to UNC Asheville and the university has formalized our relationship with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United South and Eastern Tribes. These relationships now reserve admission spots for incoming students from EBCI and USET member tribes. The university is further committed to developing educational programming and research projects for faculty and students in areas such as economic development, environmental sustainability, health and wellness, and language revitalization.

American & Indigenous Studies

The American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) minor is an interdisciplinary course of study that provides students with an understanding and appreciation of the broad historical, political, social, and economic issues and realities pertaining to indigenous societies and communities, both locally and globally, since the pre-colonial era through colonialism to modern times. The minor incorporates an interdisciplinary framework of materials, methodologies and cross-cultural comparisons from the fields of social sciences and humanities. The minor will examine historical and contemporary issues of power relations, representation, capitalism, coloniality, identity and ecology, along with social and cultural expressions rooted in the experiences and voices of indigenous peoples. Particular emphasis is placed on language revitalization, specifically in the Cherokee Language.

Learn more at ist.unca.edu

Land Acknowledgment

Place is an integral part of our identities and carries with it our past, present and future. A land acknowledgment is a formal statement that recognizes the indigenous peoples and cultures as stewards of the land on which we and our institutions now reside.

Find more information on land acknowledgments and native lands:

UNC Asheville created its land acknowledgment to honor the Anikituwagi, more commonly known as the Cherokee. The land acknowledgment is read during occasions that bring our community together to remind us of those who came before us and the settler-colonial history that has attempted to eradicate indigenous people from the history and consciousness of these lands.

The three federally recognized Cherokee tribes are the Eastern Band of Cherokee IndiansUnited Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation.

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Cherokee Land Acknowledgment Banner

(Click the image to download the PDF version)