Kihkǫspé:hla
Kihkǫspé:hla is Indigenous East’s work to sustain and renew Eastern Siouan (Yesàh) cultures, languages, histories, and living knowledge.
Through storytelling, language learning, historical research, mapping, arts, and intergenerational exchange, we connect ancestral knowledge with everyday life and the futures we envision for our children.
Rooted in our communities and homelands, this work comes to life through our Irish Creek campus, digital resources, partnerships, and learning wherever our people gather.
Knowledge lives
in relationship.
Learning begins with place.
Kihkǫspé:hla—“they remember it”—brings together Indigenous East’s work in cultural learning, language revitalization, history, and living knowledge. Rooted in Eastern Siouan (Yesàh) homelands, it connects generations through community gatherings, research, storytelling, arts, and learning on the land and online.
On six acres in Irish Creek, Kihkǫspé:hla connects cultural learning with the waters, plants, and histories of ancestral Yesàh territory. The site is owned and stewarded by NDPonics, and was donated Washington & Lee University. Indigenous East maintains an office here, and this site forms the center of our place-based cultural work. Classroom and gathering space, a library and map room, trails, and a creek make room for learning across disciplines and generations. The Eastern Siouan Rare Books Library supports community learning and research.
Language, memory & inquiry
From foodways and ecology to oral histories and mapping, Kihkǫspé:hla creates opportunities to recover knowledge, practice our cultures, and carry them forward. This work centers community priorities and keeps teaching and research accountable to the people whose histories and homelands make learning possible.
For community, learners, and partners
We welcome conversations about cultural and language learning, collaborative teaching, community-led research, and sharing knowledge across generations.
Our Irish Creek campus welcomes college classes and student groups, visiting scholars, Yesàh community groups and organizations, and select student groups outside academic settings. Visits may focus on cultural learning, language, foodways, ecology, history, mapping, or collaborative research grounded in relationships with our communities.
To discuss a visit, teaching partnership, or research stay, email us at alexa@landberry.org with a brief introduction, your group’s interests and size, and your preferred dates. All visits must be arranged in advance so we can plan together.
Visit the living laboratory website →
Continue learning
Yesa:sahį Language Project — language revitalization for Yesàh communities.
Oxateta — a digital monument to Yesàh peoples and our futures.
COMING SOON · COVER PREVIEW
Walking the Land at Kihkǫspé:hla
A Yesa:sahį́–English Field Companion for Ancestral Yesàh Landscapes
Language lives in relationship with place. Our forthcoming illustrated field companion invites Yesa:sahį́ speakers and learners to carry language into everyday encounters with the plants, animals, and homelands around us.
Part of Kihkǫspé:hla’s work to connect ancestral knowledge with everyday life, this booklet offers a way to bring language learning onto the land and share it across generations.
Forthcoming. We’ll share publication and availability details here when the booklet is ready.
A LIVING DIGITAL MONUMENT
Oxateta
A Digital Monument to Yésah Peoples and Our Futures
Our histories. Our futures.
Our gathering place.
Oxateta is a living digital monument dedicated to the history and future of the Yésah peoples. It brings stories, research, creative work, and future-making into a shared online gathering place—one we can return to, learn from, and carry forward together.
Explore our shared histories. Interactive StoryMaps offer pathways through Yésah histories, homelands, and relationships to place.
Learn, research, and imagine. Resources and research materials centered on Southeastern Siouan cultures support inquiry, cultural renewal, and the futures our communities envision.
Connect with living creativity. The Yésah Artisan Store showcases Indigenous artists, while future-making initiatives create space for what comes next.
Oxateta was made possible with funding from the Mellon Foundation through Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia at Virginia Tech, additional funding from the EPA’s Thriving Communities Grant, and direct support from NDPonics.