Day 1 & 2: A long drive and discovering Cherokee heritage

Day 1

       Day 1 started with an early wake-up call at 5am and a very long bus ride with two faculty members and ten students.  Although the ride was long, students had to pee more than my toddler, and traffic was horrible, we were very excited to see our Cabin home at the end of the day on the edge of a mountain.  After eating pizza for a late dinner, changing sleeping arrangements a few times, and blogging, we all fell asleep to the sounds of bears growling and students giggling.

Day 2

     What a great, busy day!  Today started off with breakfast in the cabin and we headed to the Cherokee Indian Hospital in Cherokee, North Carolina.  

This hospital was beautiful and designed based on concepts from hospitals all over the United States and Alaska.  When the natives were asked what was most important to them for this new hospital, they requested a flat parking lot (the old hospital had a parking lot on a hill) and for lots of windows.  On a tour, we learned about how the hospital is designed based on the Cherokee culture.  In the front you can see two large cylinders that are referred to as "Maddie's basket".  Maddie Wildcat is a well known Cherokee Indian who is famous for her baskets she weaves.  

In the center of the basket, on the floor, is the "fire spider".  According to the Cherokee history, this spider was part of how the earth was formed, and brought a fire coal down from a tree in a basket on its back.  Fire is important to life.  On another area of the floor, is a water beetle.  Water is also another element important to life according to the Cherokees.  The story is told that the water beetle carried dirt on its back up from the ocean and islands were formed for the animals to live on.  Water, light, and warmth are healing properties in this culture, and are incorporated all throughout the hospital.

We left the hospital and toured the Cherokee Museum and met with a real full-blooded Cherokee Indian, Jerry (seen in the second picture).  Touring the museum was a wonderful learning opportunity, but also very difficult to hear about the Trail of Tears and how this entire tribe was forced from their home in the 1820s and moved to Oklahoma (where over 5,000 of them died along the way).  

This bear is a symbol to represent Sequoyah who developed the Syllabary (the Eastern Cherokee Indian language).  We also learned about the 7 clans of the Cherokee Indians (Wild Potato, Long Haired, Deer, Red Tailed Hawk, Blue Holly, Paint, and Wolf clan).

We finished the day with shopping and a wild tubing trip down the Cherokee River (complete with falls, jumping off a cliff with a rope swing, spiders and snakes, and lots of laughing).  

Ready for Day 3!