{"id":27933,"date":"2023-09-29T16:53:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T20:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=27933"},"modified":"2024-08-21T14:03:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T18:03:04","slug":"shelbys-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/shelbys-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelby\u2019s Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was Shelby Parker\u2019s turn to walk out onto the softball field. She strode to the pitcher\u2019s mound at Furman\u2019s Pepsi Stadium to a soundtrack of power chords and \u201980s-style rap. The song Parker had chosen was \u201cEpic,\u201d by the alternative metal band Faith No More.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t her first choice. She had wanted her walk-out music to be a powwow song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played it for some friends of mine,\u201d recalls Parker, Furman\u2019s first known Cherokee student. The song wasn\u2019t traditional Cherokee music, but it was moving to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they laughed, and they did the war call,\u201d she says, mimicking them with her open palm moving over her open lips. \u201cI felt so much shame that I thought I was going to cry. But I just laughed,\u201d says Parker. \u201cIt was just such a different time at Furman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"five

Ahna DeCosty \u201925, a member of the Caddo Nation and representative of Furman\u2019s Native American and Indigenous Peoples Student Association, Helen Lee Turner, professor of religion, Ken Peterson, an economics professor who was provost and vice president for academic affairs at the time, Danielle Vinson, professor of politics and international affairs, and Parker stand outside the tribal council house of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee after presenting the land acknowledgment to the tribe in 2022. \/ Jeremy Fleming<\/p><\/div>\n

She didn\u2019t want to correct her white friends in that moment. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to come across like a \u2018savage\u2019 right?\u201d Parker says wryly. So, afterward, she called her father, a tribal council member, for comfort, because who else would understand?<\/p>\n

Parker, who graduated in 2015, sought mental health counseling to cope with her cultural isolation at Furman. There were no student groups for people like her, there was no programming. But there were reminders that she was different.<\/p>\n

In one class, when students were asked to share a \u201cfun fact\u201d about themselves, one classmate declared, \u201cOne summer, I lived on a reservation and built houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

It struck Parker as odd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, that\u2019s a \u2018fun fact?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI kind of absorbed it and said, \u2018Well, I grew up on a reservation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When she could, Parker, a political science major, invited her classmates into her culture. When the softball team had a game in western North Carolina, she and her family hosted 19 players and the coaching staff. The group was treated to a traditional dance performance and outdoor dinner near a stream on the reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s close friend and teammate Alexis Galinski Kramer \u201914 was a pescatarian, so she asked for fish, expecting a simple restaurant-style filet. \u201cIt was the whole fish with an eye,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Kramer also remembers the embrace of the tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could just feel how close everyone was, the team but also everyone who was hosting. It was warm,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019d tell stories of when Shelby was little. There\u2019s always a story. It\u2019s about being together.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Parker was nearing graduation, things were getting better at Furman. She was elated to learn of Religion Professor Helen Lee Turner\u2019s new May Experience course to a Hopi reservation. And years later, in 2019, Parker says she was \u201cpretty thrilled\u201d that Furman would be making a land acknowledgment, a step that would be followed by others. In it, the university publicly stated that Furman \u201coccupies
\ntraditional land of the Cherokee People, a land where the Catawba and other Indigenous people might also have found food.\u201d In November, the university unveiled a plaque and monument<\/a> making the acknowledgement a permanent presence on campus.<\/p>\n

Resilience through culture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s eyes fill with tears when she speaks of her grandmother. But with her tears is a resolve \u2013 a fierce reverence for her elders and a mission to care for them and learn from them. A deep tenderness for Native American children whose identity and well-being are at risk. And a painful recognition of what her own grandparents and others endured, from forced boarding schools to poverty, health problems such as diabetes and addiction, and limited opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"Parker

Parker as a student-athlete during a Furman softball game in 2013. \/ Furman Sports Information<\/p><\/div>\n

The tribe has come a long way since her grandparents\u2019 youth. In her work, Parker is helping to power that progress. Earlier in her career, she was a residential counselor for the Cherokee Children\u2019s Home and provided day-to-day care for Native American foster children, such as taking them to medical appointments and doing their hair before dance class. She then went to Family Safety, the tribe\u2019s child-and-adult protective services arm, a job that was enriching and central to her values but drained her emotionally.<\/p>\n

Jenna Wiggins worked with Parker as a social worker to build the Tribes Child Welfare program, and in the course of their work it grew from about eight employees to 45. The two are also close, lifelong friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cShelby is a phenomenal advocate for all people, but particularly her people, the Cherokee,\u201d says Wiggins, the human services director of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. \u201cShe was a shy person, but as she blossomed in her social work and advocacy, she grew to be a voice for other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiggins would watch Parker testify in front of a Cherokee Tribal Court judge and opposing attorneys about what was in the best interest of Native American children and how decisions that day in court would affect the children and their cultural identity for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was advocating that a child either be reunified with their parent because their parent had now become safe and healthy, or that the parents had not become healthy, so the best thing was to keep that child with their family, so they could now be in the guardianship of a grandparent or aunt or uncle,\u201d says Wiggins.<\/p>\n

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the broader debate, issuing a decision that Parker says \u201chas been celebrated and will continue to be celebrated in Native communities.\u201d The justices voted 7-2 to uphold the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which means that adoption and foster care proceedings for Indigenous children will continue to give preference to placing children with Native families or institutions from any tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving Native American children a chance to grow up in a healthy, loving, Native home or community helps them maintain their cultural identity,\u201d she adds. \u201cWhile the child\u2019s safety and happiness should be at the forefront of placement, the opportunity to grow up immersed in their culture should also be considered. Our hope and our future are our children, and they must be regarded as such.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shelby

Parker and her daughter, Acosia, 4. \/ Courtesy Photo<\/p><\/div>\n

Today Parker teaches culturally based stress management courses and other programming related to wellness, resilience, mental health and the arts at Cherokee Choices, a chronic disease prevention program within the tribe\u2019s Public Health and Human Services Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to heal from some of the historical trauma they faced, embrace the struggle and embrace the past so we can move forward as a people,\u201d she says. \u201cHelping my people grow and heal helps us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three generations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parker maintains a very close relationship to her own grandmother, who teaches the Cherokee language to both Parker and her 4-year-old daughter, Acosia. To Parker, this is a vital bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for me to raise my daughter to grow up around her,\u201d she says of her \u201cGranny.\u201d Parker\u2019s grandmother was among those prohibited from speaking Cherokee when she was sent to a boarding school under U.S. policies that forcibly removed American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian children from their families and tribes in order to assimilate them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019d be where I am today without her,\u201d says Parker. Motherhood, too, has deepened her cultural identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be the best mom I can be\u201d to Acosia, she says. \u201cI want to teach her all I can, and for her to be confident in who she is in all walks of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shelby Parker \u201915 is preserving and strengthening the Cherokee culture by uplifting its members \u2013 at work and at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2299,2669,1963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2023","category-feature-fall-2023","category-furman-magazine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27933"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33772,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27933\/revisions\/33772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}