Onita Bush, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and a first language Cherokee speaker, shares some of her vast knowledge of traditional plants with fifth graders during the Kuwohi Connection Days event held at Kuwohi in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the morning of Taline Iga (Tuesday), Duliisdi (Sept.) 15. Bush is a board member of the Center for Native Health, one of the partnering organizations planning the event. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
KUWOHI – A misty fog hung over Kuwohi (Mulberry Place) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the morning of Taline Iga (Tuesday), Duliisdi (Sept.) 15 as area students attended Kuwohi Connection Day. The event was hosted again this year by the Center for Native Health and featured educators from the Museum of the Cherokee People, EBCI (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) Cooperative Extension Office, Cherokee language groups Dadiwonisi and CLMAP (Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program), and Cherokee High School.
Another Kuwohi Connection Day was held on Thursday, Sept. 10. Several area school systems participated in the two events including New Kituwah Academy, Cherokee Central Schools, Graham County Schools, and Swain County Schools. Other collaborative partners on the event included the National Park Service, The Wilderness Society, and EBCI Community Club Council.
Nancy Pheasant, an EBCI tribal member and storyteller, welcomes students to the Kuwohi Connection Day event on Taline Iga (Tuesday), Duliisdi (Sept.) 15.
Nancy Pheasant, an EBCI tribal member and storyteller, opened the program on Duliisdi 15. “This is an opportunity for you guys to come here to Kuwohi and experience and learn why this place is so important to us as Cherokee people.
When we come to the center, we find balance. We find harmony. That’s what medicine is. You have to find your balance.”
Pheasant told the students the cultural significance of Kuwohi including accounts of Bear Council and Medicine Lake. “Share the story and find ways to help protect everything about us, everything around us, and protect each other, too. Find that harmony and find your balance.”
Katie Tiger, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, serves as the program director for the Weaving Intergenerational Pathways program in the Center for Native Health. Of the event, she told the One Feather, “It’s bringing together partnerships that care about cultural education, which is great. So, we have the Center for Native Health, National Park Service, Museum of the Cherokee People, Cooperative Extension, Wilderness Society, and Community Club Council. So, we’ve all been working to put these educational days on.”
She added, “Really, the goal is to educate the kids about what this place is to Cherokee people. And, we kind of changed it up in the sense that we’re now having high schoolers come and teach the kids these dances and songs and stories, which I think is really cool. Because, we talk about how important the intergenerational knowledge-sharing is. To me, that’s what this thing is about is just knowledge sharing and teaching one another about this special place.”
This photo, taken Duliisdi (Sept.) 15, shows the view from Kuwohi in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
When asked about the name of the event and its significance, Tiger noted, “Essentially, connect kids to this place. We talk about place-based education and this is the perfect place to do that. This year the theme is Cherokee core values, so each presenter is essentially teaching at least one of those core values to the fifth graders.”
The seven Cherokee Core Values are:
- Spirituality which creates a bond among Cherokee people in good times and bad and is a source of hope
- Group harmony in community and kin relationships, and freely sharing and giving time, talent, and treasures
- Strong individual character with integrity, honesty, perseverance, courage, respect, trust, honor, and humility
- Strong connection to the land and commitment to stewardship of the homelands of the Cherokee
- Honoring the past by knowing one’s ancestors, identifying with and belonging to the Tribe, and living and preserving Cherokee culture
- Educating the children by providing values-oriented education and recreation, and by being strong role models for them
- Possessing a sense of humor, which can lighten pressure in serious situations and help people make good decisions
Kimberly Smith, an EBCI tribal member, serves as The Wilderness Society’s Southern States conservation specialist. She had a booth during the event and told the students on Duliisdi 15, “What’s really cool about being up here is you get to see these places…these places are sacred to us and they’re special places.
These places aren’t just places where trees need to be protected, these are places where our culture lives, where it’s always at.”
