Lawson & Amber: August 2009

09 August 2009

Too much to tell

Too much has happened recently to fit neatly into one blog. The short and dirty is that we are moving to Asheville next month. No worries, I'm still in school...I will be doing my cores in Big Stone Gap, VA instead of SkyRidge. Which is just fine with me. SkyRidge decided that they would not live up to their end of the agreement and left 24 of us without rotations one month out....they suck.

On the positive side....Asheville rocks and so do the people I will be working with in Big Stone Gap. Also on the positive side, Amber will be close to her family again.

Other news will have to wait because I need to study, but I am posting a link of my personal page on the Mountain Area Memory Walk website...share it with your friends!

http://memorywalk09.kintera.org/mountainarea/lawsonz

This is my grandmother, Dorothy Nell Newman. I'm walking in the Memory Walk in her memory.

How we chose our title...

Many Native American groups, especially in the Eastern part of the nation, traditionally viewed North America as an island. Various groups told different creation stories of how the land they inhabited came into existance. The phrase "Turtle Island" is a rough translation of the name several northeastern groups gave to the land. They believed that the earth was a large island which rested on the back of a turtle's shell and that the shell was suspended from the sky vault on four huge ropes.

For many people, "Turtle Island" now represents a more complex message. It is a way of naming the soil which supports us in a way that acknowledges the occupants which resided here long before European conquests. "America" is a title which ignores the rich history, and culture, of the people who called the Island home for centuries before Ericson or Columbus. "Turtle Island" honors the traditions of an ancient civilization, while still recognizing the ever changing naure and merging cultures of the people who call this particular piece of the earth home.

By choosing to refer to our homeland as "Turtle Island" we recognize the root of our nation's culture, the history of our families, and the ever evolving nature of our own lives. As we make our place in the world, and move from location to location, we know the Island will continue to nurture and support us in the same manner it supported our ancestors as they built their own homes and families.

Lawson & Amber

09 August 2009

Too much to tell

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How we chose our title...