Traveling to NC with Cathleen: Monday July 10

First day out on the town=SUCCESS!

Upon my first glance I noticed the housing is very modest. Several homes appeared to house low income families. I also noticed there were several apartment style buildings with rooms for rent, which I learned only those that belong to the Cherokee Qualla can own the land, but they are able to lease it out to others. When we got to the hospital I was almost in shock at how amazing their landscaping was. The first thing you notice when you turn in is a beautiful waterfall. The Cherokee people brought nature into their hospital as they place great importance on it.
We visited the Museum of Cherokee Indians, upon entering the facility we were greeted by Jerry Wolfe, whom told us through an interactive video in the next room about how Earth was created. The water beetle swam to the bottom of the water until it found mud, then it dug into the mud and carried it to the surface and created land. A tree caught fire and the animals wanted it, so after the raven and the owl failed to get it, the spider spun a bowl out of thread from its own body and crawled into the tree and placed an ember in it's bowl and brought fire. To me this was very interesting because growing up in church we were always taught a much different story. The Native Americans place a great amount of value into nature and animals, where as I do believe in making attempts to preserve, most things that crawl (like spiders and beetles) give me the creeps.
There is a school that the parents can send their children to where they sign off to only have the children taught in their native language to keep their culture from dying out. This is amazing to me because the importance they place on keeping their heritage and culture alive is great! It's so sad to see cultural practices die out in our modern world.
Some of the common things I have noticed within this community and my own is the love for people watching! After the elders get their blood work done they go upstairs and sit down and people watch.We also have a Head Start program that the Qualla Boundary offers! This program helps children get ready for entering school, the teachers work along side of the parents to help them. The children receive education on things like nutrition, social and emotional services, and developmental screenings. The parents are educated in fire safety, nutrition, child abuse/neglect, health, how to budget, dental health care, how to discipline young children, and how to obtain legal services. This is great, and something I wish we utilized more in our own community, because it really empowers the youth and makes you realize they are our future and we need to guide them in the right directions.