NURS402, November 10, 2013
Malone University School of Nursing and Health Science
Appalachian Culture The second largest mountain site in America is the Appalachian Mountains that extend from the tip of Canada to the northern half of Alabama that runs for over fifteen hundred miles. These mountains are divided up into three regions, the Blue Ridge, the Great Valley, and the Ridge-and-Valley Province. There are people that lives up in these regions and help take care of the land to allow it to keep its beauty by keeping the environment clean by respecting the land. The Appalachian culture is not well known of within people in the United States; at least for myself I never heard about them till this trip. This paper will help expose this culture to everyone based on what they stand for and how they live day by day.
History
A common question asked when it comes to the history of the Appalachian Mountains is based on who were the first people that founded the mountains. Legend has it that Hernando de Soto or members of his 1539 expedition named the Appalachian Mountains. Surviving accounts of the de Soto expedition however, offered no evidence that the conquistador or any of his companions intended to designate the eastern mountain chain for the Apalachee Indians, whom they encountered far to the south in what is now northern Florida. Some people believe that that the mountains were named by travelers based on the Muscogee language. Apala means "great sea," and combined with the personal participle chi, apalache means "those by the sea." The first immigrants that came to the Kentucky Mountains were English, Scottish, and Irish. These people were considered cruel and a stubborn of a group people. (Abramson & Haskell, 2006, p. 217-219)
Sociological Perspective The Appalachian Kentucky region has a long history of poverty and subsistence living that has led to the infusion of a decline in social structure and culture standpoint.