Final Blog

So I know many of you have probably never even seen Gossip Girl, but NY Magazine does a hilarious review of it after every episode. I thought I’d do my final response in that format…it’s basically a pro/con list with point values. Here goes…

(Almost) Better than Boo Radley:

- The National Heritage Museum. It was a good way to start of the course. The exhibit about the syllabary was awesome and the one about the history of the Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears was informative. Plus 5.

- Immersion School and Cherokee Animators. From my previous post about these topics, you can tell that I loved this part of the course. I think what these guys and the school are doing for future generations is amazing. Plus 25.

- Indian Child Welfare Visit. I loved this part of the course! The women who talked to us seemed so passionate about their work and helping out children. Plus 5. However, we definitely could have used more time there. Minus 2.

- Stickball. AWESOME! I usually shy away from sports, I’m not terribly athletic and I have horrible hand-eye coordination. Luckily, stickball didn’t really require that. I have never had so much fun getting muddy, sweaty, and bruised. Plus 20.

- Stomp Dance. My “Course up to this point” blog says my feelings about this. Seriously one of the best all-nighters I’ve pulled. Plus 25.

- Films. I love Sterlin Harjo’s films and I am so glad that we got to meet him! I also enjoyed The Doe Boy and the documentaries about the stomp dance and Tar Creek. Each one of these films helped me to understand Indian culture and practices better. Plus 10.

- Coates Course. Dr. Coates was extremely intelligent and knowledgeable and seemed passionate about the history of her people. I learned so much from this class and I’m glad to have the manual they gave us to refer back to. Plus 10. The days were SUPER long, and it was kind of a bummer that the class took up two of our weekends. Minus 5.

- Meeting Wilma Mankiller. During lunch, Wilma said: “Sorry, I’m allergic to my cats and dogs, but I refuse to get rid of them.” Although that seems totally irrelevant, I’m in the same boat as her and it made me like her that much more. She’s an animal lover and the former Chief of the Cherokee Nation. I also really love hearing her speak about the Bell Project and visiting other indigenous people. Basically she is just an awesome person and I’m really glad that we had the opportunity to meet her. Plus 20.

- Float Trip. I had so much fun on the float trip! We played games, swam, tanned, and attempted to paddle our way out of danger. Plus 15. We also got super sunburned. Minus 3.

- Will Rogers, Gilcrease, And Philbrook Museums. All three of these were beautiful museums! I especially liked the paintings in the Philbrook and the exhibit about the wood artist. Plus 10.

- Phyllis, Ed, Wyman, Dede, Travis, Kinsey, Chris, and Dr. Foster. Every single one of these people gave up their time and energy to help us learn and I could not be more appreciative! I loved learning the language, history, and culture of the Cherokees. I want to say thanks to everyone for making it such a great learning experience! Plus 40.

- Staying busy. I am so happy that we stayed busy during those three weeks! Even though we were pretty tired and maybe a little cranky by the end of the trip, I feel like we got a well-rounded view of the Cherokees and that it couldn’t have been accomplished if we had cut things out. Plus 20.

- The people. I had so much fun with the other students on this trip! We had a really remarkable mix of backgrounds, majors, ages, and interests, and this made the experience much more exciting! Plus 20.

Slight Drawbacks:

- Blogging and Reading. Because we did stay so busy, it was pretty hard to get all of the assigned work done during the course. Most of the readings were pretty useful, especially Wilma Mankiller’s autobiography and Robert Conley’s Cherokee Thoughts. I have to say though that I ended up skimming a lot of the other assigned readings because I simply didn’t have time to do it all! Minus 10.

- Reading again. Having the readings in a course pack would have been much better. I hate reading things on my laptop because you can’t highlight or make notes. Having a course pack would have made reading on the way to things much easier as well. Minus 10.

- Sequoyah’s House. Although the story of how Sequoyah developed the syllabary is unique and impressive, his house wasn’t really either of those. I’m not sure if I would recommend going there again…there just wasn’t that much to see and the information provided there wasn’t anything I hadn’t read previously. Minus 5.

- (Lack of) Free time. I know I said I was glad that we stayed busy, but one entire free day would have been nice. I would definitely suggest having it after the stomp dance. People were tired and grumpy, which made the amount of complaining escalate. Having a free day would have given people the alone time they needed. Minus 2.

- Not enough language instruction. It would have been great if we could have learned more of the language. We barely skimmed the surface! We also didn’t have any language instruction the last week, so it felt slightly crammed in the first two. Minus 4.

- Only going to the Bible Study. Although it was neat to hear a Bible Study in Cherokee, I feel like it would have been much more beneficial to actually attend a church service. Since so many Cherokees are Christians, it would have been useful to see how their services are run. Minus 3.

- Visiting the UKB. Although it is great to get perspectives from both the Cherokee Nation and the UKB, I left our visit with them angry and saddened. They seemed very immature and defensive. It was not a positive experience! Minus 12.

TOTAL: 149

Judging from the astronomically high positive number, I would have to say that this course was awesome! I have seriously never learned so much in such a short amount of time, and I am so grateful that I had this opportunity!