Teachings of a Cherokee spiritual person occur spontaneously, not in formal classrooms. Often these lessons are passed on verbally from mother (or grandmother) to daughter or father to son. Pamela Dawes Tambornino shares her grandmother’s knowledge of language, herbal cures, animals, and people. She shows how the entire life of a healer is a text to be pondered, as well as nature and its processes. She recalls her childhood lessons, beginning at age six and continuing into her early teens.
As the author reflects upon her grandmother, she brings to life the humor and the generosity that made her grandmother a healer respected by her Oklahoma family and community. Pamela Dawes Tambornino (Cherokee, Wolf Clan) teaches at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. She received her BA in English, Magna Cum Laude, at Washburn University and a Master of Library Science degree at Emporia State University. She is completing a Master of Arts in English at Emporia State University. She won the Federal Librarian of the Year from the Library of Congress in 2001 while working at Haskell, and the Ted Fleming Teaching Award from Washburn University for teaching excellence. She has published in Tribal College Journal, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Yellow Medicine Review. An article on Cherokee rhetoric is forthcoming from American Rhetoric Assn. Journal.
Tambornino, an enrolled member of Cherokee Nation, follows her grandmother’s lead as she entertains her readers and also, indirectly, instructs them.
As the author reflects upon her grandmother, she brings to life the humor and the generosity that made her grandmother a healer respected by her Oklahoma family and community. Pamela Dawes Tambornino (Cherokee, Wolf Clan) teaches at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. She received her BA in English, Magna Cum Laude, at Washburn University and a Master of Library Science degree at Emporia State University. She is completing a Master of Arts in English at Emporia State University. She won the Federal Librarian of the Year from the Library of Congress in 2001 while working at Haskell, and the Ted Fleming Teaching Award from Washburn University for teaching excellence. She has published in Tribal College Journal, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Yellow Medicine Review. An article on Cherokee rhetoric is forthcoming from American Rhetoric Assn. Journal.
Tambornino, an enrolled member of Cherokee Nation, follows her grandmother’s lead as she entertains her readers and also, indirectly, instructs them.
