Personal Narrative: Raising My Tribe

I am a Native American born and raised in Jamestown, Virginia. It was always just my father and I, my mother passed away when I was an infant, so my father raised me to be an independent woman. My father is the head commander of the tribe. He only allowed me to go to the village near our tents. I never went further than the village, till this one day that I was feeling so curious about what was out there, so I decided to walk beyond the village to see what there is to explore.

I am 21 years of age with no one to count on, no hopes for a brighter future, and feeling all alone trying to be the best mother I can be for Abigail-Rose. I’m wondering who can help guide me through my journey of motherhood and as a young woman, where I try to be as visible as possible in covering my emotions through a smile. I’m trying to show that I am a strong young woman, yet I’m scared to do or say the wrong things. I desperately hope no one will ask me if “I’m okay,” because then I’ll burst into tears.

I am a true country southern bell from Georgia with roots that goes back to the Cherokee tribe. I am the daughter of Beanbug and Mann although they have real names where we are from we do not use them. Beanbug started off working at the chicken house but after gutting chicken for a couple of years she decided to get a degree. This is how I came to be. I come from a more rural area modern time and where I did not have to farm like my grandparents. I know who I am. I am come from a family that would cook Sunday dinner which include fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens, cornbread and many more food that sooth the soul. I am a special person that believed to see spirts at night that kept me up. One night I went to my grandmother bed and

Life experiences can be challenging and difficult while also beautiful and rewarding. One of the most difficult experiences that I have ever faced was my journey to motherhood. While every day is a new learning experience, testing my patience and sanity, having my daughter and learning

In rural North America, in present day Billing, Montana, over 600 years ago, there once live a tribe that was fierce as a bear and yet stayed together like a pack of wolves and trickery as a fox. Altogether, it builds an ultimate warrior of pure ferociousness and blunt force. Other tribes tended to more soft than the tribe I was in . While most tribes were farmers and gathers, our tribe was mainly hunters, we raided other tribes of their goods.

Culture changes so much throughout our lifetime, from music to fashion trends. The more i look into my culture the more i notice it isn’t very unique.

As a mother, I see my children growing up before my eyes. It feels like just yesterday I was giving birth to my son and holding him in my arms for the first and today he is already 4 years old. When I look back and think of four years of my life, it doesn’t seem like much, but when

Coming from a family of four and living with only my mother has been very difficult. She has been my only parent figure growing up and I have overcome endless amounts of barriers and hardships. I am the oldest in my family and required to babysit. It is my responsibility to help her out by working with her at her job because she doesn't obtain much money. My mom works at a small cellphone shop where I help her manage inventory, make payments, and solve telephone related problems. I learned how to communicate with customers and gain people skills. It has been rough balancing life at home and at school. I had nobody to look up to and felt alone. Being first generation, I felt as if I was carrying the world's weight on my shoulder. College is

I looked over to the side as the doctor's were cleaning her up and did not feel the overwhelming emotion that I had with my first one. I looked over at my husband who moved to the side very excited and kiss my head. I wondered secretly why I felt different this time. Recovery room In the recovery room, I made sure that my daughter was always with us. My husband thought this was just because that is who I am. Secretly, I felt if I spent more time with her I would feel the bond that had to come. It would come. Right? I never let her sleep in the nursery and tried to bond with her every chance we got. However, the forcing of the feelings made it only harder to bond. I became to wonder if this was how all mothers felt after their second born. At home When we got home, I tried to force the emotion for just awhile, and then gave up. Although, I would breastfeed her I would not look down at her. I felt like there was not much of a point. Besides feeding the baby, my husband did everything else. It made perfect sense for her to smile at him while she seemed to give me no emotion. She was just giving off what she got. His fault These new strange feeling I had became my husband's fault. Everything he did was wrong or just not good enough. In fact, it would not be a stretch to say I would yell at him for just breathing. He was annoying to me at this time in my life. I am surprised looking back that he

My family heritage starts back when the greek gods had just been made. Prometheus was creating humans and their attributes now he didn’t get it first try. He made like 5 then he made my great ancestor on his 6th try, his 7th was the best one he used, now everything was right with my ancestors but one thing. He pushed my ancestor to the side and didn’t use them. Later the Celtic gods found them and used them in there big group. Now since they had sat there so long they changed to live longer but faced bad late blooming and late life cycle attributes. So they put in my ancestor on earth and he was named Piner Jamieson, why Jamieson you might ask, well Pine is a tree and Celts loved their plants and nature. But Jamieson is a Scottish word for overtaking government, but as

My immediate family includes my father Craig, mother Judy, younger sister Chloe, and myself. The heritage of my father’s family originates in Ireland and Denmark. His ancestors came to the United States around 1905. My mother’s family traveled from Germany to America in 1855. My parents married in 1994 in the Saint Patrick Catholic Church where they both grow up, in Montrose, South Dakota. Three years later, I was born at the Avera Mckennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Specifically, I entered the world on April 15, 1997. Six year later my family expanded by the addition of my sister. She was born in the same hospital on July 27, 2003.

I am an African American female that learned my culture from my family. It was taught early on about slavery and what my ancestors went through. Majority of my family was born and raised in Georgia. My grandmother and my grandfather was from Americas, Georgia. My grandmother would tell me stories of how she had to take care of her siblings, cook and care for the farm. She was the true example of what a resilient woman looked like and she raised her children to be the same and it was passed down to their children and so on. My grandmother believe in family and supporting one another. She felt like a good home cooked meal should bring a family together and celebrate one another. That helps with building a strong bond within the family. We were

One year ago I found out I was pregnant with my first child. Being a teen mom in school I felt as if my life was over, no more parties or a normal teenage girls life. Dealing with strict parents and their traditions of no kids or sex till marriage wasn't helping my situation. I knew my mom was going to be really disappointed in me, but I had to tell her. And I knew the longer I stayed quite it would be worse it would be and I had to get checked out by the doctors

On January 13, 2009, my son Lucas Jackson was born and my life was in for a complete makeover. No longer would my closet be the center of my universe; I was now responsible for another person. Things get put into perspective when I have to put another persons needs before my own. No more spontaneous trips to the mall to get the latest Hollister tee and rainbow flip flops. The trips I have become more accustomed to is now trips to Wal-Mart for diapers and formula. Those great long nights of sleep are interrupted by cries and diaper changes at ungodly hours of the morning. The time I used to be able to dedicate to school has become more chaotic and more challenging. My social life had to be put on pause, with another person in the mix there are more important things in life than how many friends I have acquired on Face book that week. After the birth of my son my responsibilities changed; I was no longer a selfish entitled twenty-two year old college student I was now a mom. Despite the challenges, I had the greatest most rewarding job anyone could ask for; it was a big change but a very much appreciated one.

When a woman becomes a mother she is now responsible for another human life. The selfless act of protecting another human being is much like that of a soldier. As a mother you are responsible to shelter your child from the harm of what has become a dangerous world. Everything I do now revolves around my children’s wellbeing. The way I drive, who I talk to and where I go have dramatically changed since having children. I have to teach my children the dangers of speaking to a stranger, stop them from running out into the street with cars speeding by, get them medical attention if they were ever to injure themselves or get sick, and if it came down to it take a bullet to save their lives. One night Logan woke up in the middle of the night screaming. His father and I went into his bedroom to see if he was okay. No matter what we did, he would not calm down. He eventually stopped crying but he was not breathing right. Logan was gasping for air and at one point stop breathing all together. We called 911 and Logan was rushed to the hospital with an oxygen level of just 86%. I was right next to him the entire time the doctors and nurses were poking at him, even though I had to work at 7 o’clock the next morning. It broke my heart. Logan and I stayed in the hospital until close to four o’clock in the morning. The doctors said he had a