Day 1

I am most excited about having new experiences within a culture I am not at all familiar with. I am also excited to attend the situation with an open-mind and eagerness to learn. It is clear that what we were taught in school regarding the relationships between the English and Native Americans was false, therefore, it will be interesting to see the perspective of the Cherokee.

While I am an open-minded person, I am nervous to encounter a situation in which I do not know how to respond. A flaw of mine is being unable to control my facial expressions at times. It is something I am working on yet have not perfected. I do not want to unintentionally offend someone. This culture is very much about respect so I do not want to tarnish that with them.

Societal and cultural influences everyone, especially children. It is likely the children in this area will be exposed to unhealthy lifestyle habits (lack of adequate nutrition, substance abuse). Because of this, it is common for children to be raised by their grandparents or great-grandparents, which could come with its own set of differences. It will be interesting

When thinking about Native Americans, I mainly think of respect for their culture. I very much respect them for their efforts to preserve their culture. The Cherokee school and how the whole family commits to preserving the language is very telling to how important they feel culture is. I also think about nature when I think about Native Americans as they continue to utilize their land resources above anything else.  

My first experience being exposed to anything related to Native American cultures was watching Pocahontas and learning about Christopher Columbus as a child. Come to find out, these stories are complete misrepresentations to make out current culture feel better about themselves. Even knowing they are misrepresentations, I think they still can hold value with stereotyping. As an American in general, most of us have ancestral guilt (as Lisa phrased it). We are ashamed of what our people have done to those of other cultures in the past. While I am proud of our history in certain things, there are a lot of things I am very ashamed of. Because of this, it is hard to learn about more things we did as a society to others.