Yesa:sahį́ Language and Sacred Places Project
Eastern Siouan Lands
Group photo from Yesáh Language & Lifeways Gathering event 2024. Photo by YLP
Through online education and public storytelling, the Yesa:sahį́ Language and Sacred Places Project seeks to encourage visitors and learners to reframe their understanding of American history, recognizing the on-going presence of Indigenous people in the region (the Ama:i Yesą́).
Utilizing Yesą́ stories, art, and traditional ecological knowledge, the Yesa:sahį́ Language and Sacred Places Project highlights the continuous and deep relationship that Yesą́ peoples (the Monacan; Occaneechi; Haliwa-Saponi; Sappony; Ohio Saponi; Tutelo; and other Eastern Siouan tribes) hold to their sacred places and traditional territories across Appalachia.
A visit to the Indigenous Community Garden during from Yesáh Language & Lifeways Gathering event 2024. Photo by YLP
“I find that when our kids learn their language in these sacred spaces of their ancestral homelands, where our language was conceived, they connect with these spaces, they understand the intentions of our language and teachings of our ancestors. As a result they have a different feeling of what it means to be Monacan, what it means to be Yesáh, to be indigenous to place.”
-Desiree Shelley, Monacan Indian Nation, monument lead and board member
The project is a collaboration between the Yesa:sahį́ Language Project, Indigenous East, 7 Directions of Service and the Virginia Tech Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education. The monument consists of a series of public gathering “monuments” and a physical monument in support of ongoing collaborative, intertribal, Indigenous community-led efforts to revitalize the Monacan/Tutelo/Saponi language (Yesa:sahį́) and the connections of contemporary Indigenous communities to ancestral homelands in Appalachian Virginia.
Artists Dominique Daye Hunter, Shaheen Aki Hedgepeth, and Bryce Burrell with the Yesa:sahį physical art monument at the unveiling at Fort Christina, VA. Photo by MAAP Team.
Children playing stickball during Yesáh Language & Lifeways Gathering event 2024. Photo by YLP
Monument Team
Desiree Shelley
Alexandra Sutton Lawrence
Donna Westfall-Rudd
Marvin “Marty” Richardson
Dominique Daye Hunter
Crystal Cavalier-Keck
Victoria Ferguson
Alicia Aldaz
Shaheen Aki Hedgepeth
Bryce Burrell
Crystal Bradshaw-Gonzalez
An illustration showing a sculpture and gathering inspired by indigenous lifeways and place-based language learning gatherings. Illustration by Rebecca Steele.