By BROOKLYN BROWN
One Feather Reporter
CHEROKEE, N.C. – March is Women’s History Month. For the month of March, the One Feather will be sharing articles that highlight strong, intelligent women behind the day-to-day operations of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).
This week’s article features Cherokee women from several programs within the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Public Health and Human Services (PHHS) Division.
Celine Lambert, DVSA intake technician. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photo)
Celine Lambert, from Wayohi (Wolftown), is an intake technician for the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault (DVSA) program. DVSA is preparing for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, as well as Denim Day on April 30.
“It’s important to let survivors know that we believe them and that we stand behind them and support them,” Lambert said.
Lambert said Women’s History Month reminds her of the strength of the women in her family, particularly her grandmother.
“My grandma is going to be 90 years old this year and she’s just still very independent. She’s still going, she’s still bowls, and she’s just strong and resilient,” she said.
“Anytime there’s something wrong or anytime I need support, all of my aunts, all the women in my family come together and just help in whatever way they can.”
Shown, left to right, are Stella Blankenship, Tsalagi Public Health manager; Jenny Bean, ICWA supervisor and expert witness; and Sheena Kanott Lambert, Public Health director. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photo)
Sheena Kanott Lambert, from Elawodi (Yellowhill), is the PHHS Public Health director. Kanott Lambert said the women of PHHS bring expertise and compassion to the table. “A lot of us are mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and they just have a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge that they bring, and with wisdom comes compassion, too,” she said.
“I think being Cherokee and having that matrilineal history, women are truly the backbone of our people. They are mothers and providers, healers, supporters, we cheer for each other. There have been a tremendous amount of people in the health field that have been Cherokee women—some known and some unknown, but they all have brought tremendous value.”
Kanott Lambert shared some PHHS initiatives that women in the community may be interested in, including the Nurse-Family Partnership program, the Women, Infants and Children program, and the Vending Machine project, which offers menstrual products, pregnancy tests, and more.
Jenny Bean, from Wayohi (Wolftown), is the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) supervisor and social worker, as well as an expert witness in related cases for the EBCI. “Being a social worker, I work with women all over the United States, and it’s just empowering to work with other women for the benefit of our children, to keep our families together where they’re supposed to be and connected to each other,” she said.
Bean said in addition to her work with families, she also has several teenage girls on her caseload who she works to encourage. “I visit every month, and I try to spend a little extra time with them, encourage them to know that they can be whatever they want to be, and they can go out into the world. They might not be in the best place right now, but we’re working together, she and I and her social worker and her family, to get her so that she knows she can be whatever she chooses and she can be that person.”
Bean highlighted family, community, and being healthy as core values for her. “I run 5Ks, 10Ks, and keep myself healthy so I can be there for my family and help raise my grandchildren. I think kindness, compassion, empathy, and humor are very important. We have got to find something funny somewhere in the day, but I just think all of that combined is important.”
Bean said her great grandmother has been an inspiration. “I think my great grandmother probably was the one who was the most influential. She spent the most time with me and taught me a lot and would talk to me in Cherokee. She was a big part of my life.”
Brandy Davis, Health Operations director. (Photo contributed)
Brandy Davis is the PHHS Health Operations director and the acting lead compliance officer. “PHHS is a very female dominated division. Out of the directors, three of the four are women, and since I’ve been here, the secretary has been a woman,” she shared.
“It’s like a sisterhood. I like to hear other women’s ideas, sharing those ideas, and with us being a very matriarchal society, it’s kind of natural for us to automatically bond and just have a connection to empowering other women.”
Davis emphasized the historical importance of Women’s History Month. “It’s just been a little over a hundred years ago that we were actually able to vote, and even less so for native women during that time. It’s important to recognize pioneer women because they actually paved the way to allow us to have the voice and the ability to do what we do every day,” she said.
“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here. It’s important to recognize that, and it’s important to keep that going for future generations of strong Native women.”
Stella Blankenship is the manager of Tsalagi Public Health. Blankenship said 11 out of her 12-person staff are women. “Having the culture that we have that we as women serve our people, I think it really connects us. I enjoy working with other women,” she said.
“That’s always been a thing with us as Cherokee. We empower women. I think that respecting your body, respecting who you are, knowing who you are, where you come from, and just having a healthy mind, physically and spiritually, is important because we are caregivers.”
Blankenship said she learned her value as a Cherokee woman from the women in her family. “I come from a strong line of women that have been through a lot, and they’ve come out on top. They don’t give up.”
Gretchen McNab, administrator RN for Tribal In-Home Care. (Photo contributed)
Gretchen McNab is the administrator RN for Tribal In-Home Care. “Currently, our staff consists of 100 percent women, and home care as a profession is dominated by women across all fields that make up our services,” she shared.
McNab said Women’s History Month is impactful in recognizing the contributions of women that are often forgotten in history. “Women’s accomplishments have historically been overlooked and they’ve also been underrepresented. They’ve been compared to the accomplishments of their male counterparts in order to validate it,” she said.
“Think about Marie Curie, she’s often labeled as the ‘female Einstein,’ but Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel prizes in two different scientific fields. Even though she has that on her tremendous list of accomplishments, her accomplishments are still compared with those of men as though they require endorsement in order to be recognized…women and girls need to see themselves and their achievements as equally important and valued.”
McNab shared the Cherokee cultural value of women. “Cherokee women are the heart and soul of our families as we come from a historical matriarchy. This continues to be evident over time and persists in the many ways that we interact in our family circles. The focus on family and knowledge of our family history is huge,” she said.
“It’s usually our women who pass that information to us throughout our lives. My own mother was our family genealogist; she collected endless amounts of data, historical photos and stories over her lifetime, and she loved to share that information with anyone who was interested in learning it. She made telling her children and her grandchildren a priority.”
McNab said learning, especially through mentorship, is also cultural. “There are many other traditional ways that we learn from our matriarchs, such as the correct ways to ensure we’re gathering from nature without damaging resources. Many times these are learned observationally just by simply having accompanied women as they perform those tasks,” she said.
“When I was a young woman, I was fortunate to have known many older Cherokee women that freely mentored me with the most useful guidance regarding the importance of remembering our cultural practices, including our ethical principles that are rooted in our history.”
PHHS is a division dominated by women, as is the healthcare profession. McNab posited as to why, “There’s that commonality that you find among women in a profession that historically is a caring profession. Caring professions are just historically dominated by women and women led in those professions.”
