June 6th, 2016

Good Evening from North Carolina! This is the gorgeous view that I woke up to from outside of the balcony in my room. Currently I am sitting outside on the wrap around deck of the cabin watching the sun set over the mountain. 

My first impression of the Cherokee environment when we visited the Cherokee Indian hospital is that they really did an amazing job making sure to encompass all aspects of the culture when building the hospital. Everything in the hospital in some way related back to the culture. From the lights to the pillars that look like trees. One thing that I found really cool was the fact that they made the rooms bigger to allow space for more family members, which you can see pictured below.   

When comparing the two different cultures I believe that the Native American culture is not only focused on the physical health but they also focus on their mind, body, spirit, and they respect and use nature more than the American world. One way I would see the cultures as similar is that we both go to movies, watch TV, and go out to dinner. 

One interesting thing I found was how the Cherokee is teaching their culture to their children and preserving their ways. One way that the Cherokee pass their on to the culture on to their children is through a school that the children attend where the children are only spoken to in the Cherokee language. The only way that a child can attend this school is if they are Cherokee. Another way the culture influences the children is the when the children are born they are placed in the mother’s tribe rather than the fathers and they cannot marry someone within their own tribe because they are considered blood relatives. The Cherokee children do have outside influences and are very similar to children of other cultures. They wear cartoon t-shirts, watch the latest kid’s TV shows, and go to movies. 

Today, I believed that the most interesting part of the day was talking to Jerry Wolfe at the Cherokee Indian Museum. Mr. Wolfe was a Navy Veteran from World War 2. Today, being June 6^th which was D-day was a very memorable day for Mr. Wolfe. While serving he was actually on a Navy ship that was on the beaches of Normandy. He told us stories of how the ships would pull up and drop off the Army Men and there would be water but underneath would actually sink holes and the men would never be seen again.  Mr. Wolfe also told us stories that his father passed onto him. One story that I found really interesting is why the opossums’ tale is the way it is. I may not get the story completely correct but it goes like this… 

There was an opossum that had the most beautiful tail in the forest who always competed in beauty contests and would win. Well the trickster rabbit hired the cricket who was a barber to basically sabotage the opossum. The cricket shaved the opossums’ tale and wrapped it up. Right before another beauty show the opossum removed the wrap and went on stage to have all the other animals laughing and sneering at him. Not knowing what was going the opossum looked at his tale and realized it was ugly. He immediately fell over and played dead which is why they still play dead to this day!

  

For dinner we had hamburgers, shrimp and potatoes, and a green bean salad. Now it's time to get in the hot tub and then go to bed!