by Larry Stringer

Created on: February 21, 2010   Last Updated: February 23, 2010

The Cherokee People and Their  Legends

The Cherokee who call themselves the Ani yun wiya or “the real people”. At one time these peole inhabited a region of land that ran from the western part of Virginia on down to the Carolinas, where it then turned slightly into Tennessee and upper Georgia. The Cherokee were a loosely tied clan of some one hundred separate tribes.

That is until the infamous “trail of tears” initiated by the white man brought an end to the way of life for the magnificent Cherokee. The Cherokee hold a special place in my heart, because my loving wife Minnie is half Cherokee, and will be the first to correct you when you call her a white girl.

The Cherokee, like most tribes during these trying times, were hunter gatherers and being as versatile as they are, they also excelled in farming. They achieved this, by producing such crops as corn and beans along with assorted gourd type plants such as domestic forms of squash.

The religious hierarchy of the Cherokee was established by using individual chiefs as leaders of individual villages. However - one supreme chief called “The White Chief” over saw all governmental issues concerning all the tribes within the Cherokee Confederacy.

And like most tribal tribunes they also had one main war chief known as the “Red Chief”. This was the man who was in charge of the “art of war” strategy, and dealing out the punishment for civil crimes.

Unlike most tribes of American Indians, the Cherokee were fortunate (or unfortunate) to have a member of the tribe who learned the white mans ways. This would be the one who was educated in the white eye schools. This man was called Sequoyah.

Sequoyah was able to put Cherokee symbols into a form of the English alphabet. This transformed language was a great stepping stone for the Cherokee; it is just too bad that it was not enough to save them from the cruelty of western ways.

As far as religious intent, the Cherokee had plenty. They believed in many gods who were shape shifters or skin walkers as some tribes called them. They took the form of assorted creatures that ranged from ravens, rabbits, otters, and ferrets, to miscellaneous birds.

They believed that such supernatural beings such as the “thunder people” (who lived in the sky) commanded the actions of man. These actions, played out in their beliefs that the stories of these gods just like they were, were full

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