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 of drama, action and deceit, just like Homers tales of the Greeks.
Our first story from these enlightened people, is another creation myth, and tells of the time when fire was introduced to the Cherokee, I hope that you enjoy it.
In the time before time, when the world was still very young, the evenings were rather cold and intolerable. And with the glow of twilight slowly fading, there is no consolation in knowing that with the first dawning light of a new day, the sun still does not bring the much desired relief.
The reason for this of course is that fire was not something that the inhabitants of this new world even knew about. Now this was not that fire was unheard of, but the knowledge of how to produce it was. Well as the story goes a great storm rolled in one day. That storm began to cast a shadow across the great water.
This shadow grew darker and darker until it blocked the Sun from striking the surface of this great expanse of water that almost covered the earth. As the storm grew in intensity, it formed great billowy structures out of the clouds in the sky. The Earth trembled from the pounding sound of the “Thunder People” stomping.
The Thunder People, who lived in the blue vastness of the sky above, were getting very angry. The clouds clashed and the lightning flashed, then all the creatures ran for safety including man.
As one of these lightning bolts touched the ground, it struck one of the many islands that existed in this mostly water bound world. The creatures that inhabited this small island, closest to the strike, saw the great fire manifest itself with a bright flash that seemed to cause a strange pain to their eyes.
The creatures who witnessed this miracle, were very interested in acquiring this new thing that consumed all that it touched. Some of these creatures such as the Raven, and the Turtle, held a council with all the other animals to determine just who would go and get this thing that shined so bright and bring it back to the inhabits of this world.
The words were said and the votes were cast. The winner was Raven, because he had convinced the elders that only he was strong enough to seek the flame. Only he could bring it back to them. When the storm had subsided the raven took to the air and flew to the distant island.
As Raven drew near the fire it flared up as if it knew that the Raven approached. This sudden flare up scorched the ravens feathers, which made him very angry, because before this happened, he was as white as the snow, until now that is.
When the searing heat produced by the fire discolored the Raven's feathers. He looked down and saw that his whole body was black as the night. The frightened and badly burnt Raven flew back to the others and told them the fire had attacked him, and he was lucky to get away with his life.
The next brave creature to try his luck was the screech owl. The screech owl was so afraid; he flew as fast as he could to the island. But the fire again flared, and although the owl did not land as the Raven had previously done. He did fly so close, that the heat from the now raging fire, burned his eyes and made them red (just as they are today).
In his fear and confusion, the now half blinded screech owl flew back to the others. When the owl finally got home, he told all the creatures gathered there, that the Raven was right. The fire tried to snatch him out of the sky, in fact the fire reached up so close (the screech owl showed them his eyes) that he could feel its hot breath.
This time after much deliberation the council decided to send two owls one would be the Horned Owl and the other would be the Hoot Owl. As this ill- fated pair made its way to the burning island, the smoke and ash was so thick that it nearly blinded the pair.
In fact the ashes had left rings around their eyes that still remain there today. Hardly able to see, and almost blinded by the smoke, the two owls made their way slowly back to the others, zig zagging in the sky, hardly able to see.
The next to try was a small green water snake, who did make it to the island, but as he climbed the tree that housed the fire - he fell in, and was nearly burnt to death. It is because of this that the skin which was so brilliant of a green before, had now turned black as the night, which to this very day is why we call this snake a “Black Snake”.
Now the time had come when all the creatures had tried to bring back the great fire and had failed. The council was ready to give up, when a small spider stepped up and said “I will go and capture the fire”. This caused a great laughter to arise from the crowd.
The Raven, the Owls, and all of the other animals made fun of the little water spider, and told him he would surely die if he went to catch the fire, besides he was way too small to carry anything of any consequence.
However the little spider had hatched a plan. When he got to the island he crawled up to the massive burning tree and began spinning a web. The web was in the shape of a basket. The spider then placed a small piece of clay in the shape of a bowl on his back.
When the water spider made it to the island he took the clay bowl and scooped up the glowing ember from the fire, to which he immediately took back to the elder council.
I had heard a variation of this story being used in another Cherokee tale. About the time the world was black, and all the animals could not see very well. The story goes something like this. One day the old crafty Owl told the young opossum that we needed to get some light around here.
“And just where do you think we are going to get it from” hissed the opossum?They say that the Cochina have the secret to light. With this in mind, the opossum was an animal on a mission, and set out on his quest.
Later on that day, after a long journey, the opossum, finally found the Sun hanging on a cedar tree limb. It was too large to carry away, so he threw a rock at the sun disk, and a piece of the glowing disc surprisingly broke off. The young opossum grabbed a vine and strung it through the disc and tried to get away by hiding the sun splinter in the fur of its tail.
This was a terrible mistake, as he soon found out. His tail caught fire, and the opossum took off running, like if you will pardon the expression “like his tail was on fire”.
The opossum ran to the nearest stream and put his tail in the cool water and put out his now hairless tail (that's why the opossum has a hairless tail today).
The turkey vulture tried his luck and when the vulture grabbed the sun splinter and tried to hide it under the feathers on his head, the glowing disc had already burnt the head feathers off the turkey vulture (and that is why his head is bald today).
Well all the animals thought this was terrible, what are we going to do the animals asked. It is hopeless replied the owl. Well it was at this time, the wise old spider said she could do it. In no time the old spider spun a web across the sky, and spun another web as a flat place on her back.
She then placed a hand made clay bowl on her back and walked the short distance to the disc which was lying on a rock. She then walked up to the rock and with another rock pushed the glowing piece of the Sun into the clay bowl and took it to the others.