This is for B1 English learners, please read at a calm, rather slow speed, but without specific pauses. If possible, try to make the change of speakers (only two, a father and his daughter) in the dialogues as clear as possible (the students will not have the script). Thank you so much for your help !
My father's hair was black. His skin was brown like the beautiful mud-bottom rivers he swam in. Shadows lived in the angles of his cheeks. […] He gave these things to me.
“Because you're Cherokee,” Dad said to me when I was four and old enough to ask why folks called me dark.
“They'll call you worse, Betty,” he said.
“But what is cherry key ?” I asked.
“Cherokee. Repeat after me. Cher-o-kee.” He made his lips open funny when he said the o so I giggled.
“Cherry key,” I said again, repeating it until I got it right. “But what is it?”
“Cherokee is you,” he said, putting me on his lap.
From out of his pocket, he pulled a small piece of deerskin […] to point out the strange lettering written on the smooth side. The ink was blue and blurring on the edges, as if water was taking the writing away.
“This is what it looks like to write Cherokee, Betty,” he said. “My momma was given this skin by her mother. [...]”
“I can't read it.” I ran my fingers over the fading words. “They're written funny. What do they say?”
“They say don't forget who you are.”
“Did your mother forget who she was?” I asked. “Is that why she needed to be reminded?”
“There used to be a time when people like us wouldn't be able to say we were Cherokee,” he said. “We would have to say we were Black Dutch.”
“What's that?”
“A dark-skinned European.”
“Why couldn't we say we were cherry key ? I mean Cher-o-kee.”
“Because it had to be hidden.”
“But, why?”
“Cherokees were bein' moved off their land and onto reservations. If our people said they were Black Dutch, they were allowed to stay because someone of European roots could own land. But you can only lie to yourself for so long before it wears ya down. My daddy and momma had to say they were Black Dutch so often, it made Momma lose her breath. She had to remind herself who she truly was.”
I looked up at him.
“Who am I?” I asked.
“You're you, Betty,” he said.
“How can I be sure?”
“Because of who you come from. You come from great warriors.” He laid his hand against my chest. “You come from great chiefs who led nations to both war and peace.”
