June 6th

Today we toured the Cherokee Indian Hospital and went to the Cherokee Indian Museum. At the Cherokee Indian Museum we got to meet Jerry Wolfe, who is the first Cherokee to receive the award for Most Celebrated Cherokee since 1801. When meeting the Cherokees and touring the hospital, I was amazed by how friendly and welcoming everyone was. The Cherokee's Hospital is set up on the Smokey Mountains and it is an absolutely beautiful and relaxing view. Also, when building the new hospital they took the Cherokee Indian's beliefs and culture into consideration. It was absolutely awesome to see how they decorated the hospital in respect to the culture and the cultures value of nature. When learning about the Cherokee's history, I found out things that I never knew and found a better understanding of the hardships the Cherokees went through. I find their theories about how the Earth was created through a water beetle, then fire brought to the land by birds was a very interesting theory. I also loved learning about their stories on how and why animals look the way they do. I also found it interesting in how the Cherokee's have managed to preserve their culture not only in the tribe but also in the community. Another interesting thing to me was finding out how the Indians received their money and funding. I was surprised when I found out that they make individuals of Native American decent get blood testing done as soon as they were born to find out the percentage of Native American they are. Based off of the percentage of Native American in their blood depends on if they are eligible to receive funding from the government or not. Their values are similar to mine in that I also value family and elders. Our beliefs are similar in ways related to Christianity because my family is of the Catholic religion. But, my beliefs differ greatly when considering their beliefs about animals, nature, and the way the world was created. The Cherokee Indians culture is integrated into the children's life by telling them stories about the animals and nature. The children participate in the culture by learning songs, stories, and the meaning of nature. The community of Cherokee is small and the town where I grew up was a small town where everyone knows everyone, therefore our communities are similar in that way. Also, the Cherokee community is a small farming community which is also like my home town.
Today while touring the hospital, the museum, and talking with Mr. Wolfe I learned more about the Cherokee than I ever thought I would. I would honestly have to say that talking to Mr. Wolfe and learning his history and hearing the stories he had to tell us was amazing and eye opening.