4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Cherokee, by James Mooney This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology Author: James Mooney Release Date: May 11, 2014 [EBook #45634] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE *** Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Contents] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 1/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee [Contents] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 2/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE BY JAMES MOONEY https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 3/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee EXTRACT FROM THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1902 [3] [Contents] MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE BY JAMES MOONEY [5] [Contents] CONTENTS https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 4/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee XII. John Ax (Itagû′nûhĭ) 238 XIII. Tagwădihĭ′ 256 XIV. Ayâsta 272 XV. Sawănu′gĭ, a Cherokee ball player 284 XVI. Nĭkwăsĭ′ mound at Franklin, North Carolina 337 XVII. Annie Ax (Sadayĭ) 358 XVIII. Walinĭ′, a Cherokee woman 378 XIX. On Oconaluftee river 405 XX. Petroglyphs at Track-rock gap, Georgia 418 F 1. Feather wand of Eagle dance 282 2. Ancient Iroquois wampum belts 354 [10] [Contents] BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL PHOTOGRAPH BY AUTHOR, 1888 IN THE CHEROKEE MOUNTAINS [11] [Contents] MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE By J M I—INTRODUCTION https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 8/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee As is always the case with tribal geography, there were no fixed boundaries, and on every side the Cherokee frontiers were contested by rival claimants. In Virginia, there is reason to believe, the tribe was held in check in early days by the Powhatan and the Monacan. On the east and southeast the Tuscarora and Catawba were their inveterate enemies, with hardly even a momentary truce within the historic period; and evidence goes to show that the Sara or Cheraw were fully as hostile. On the south there was hereditary war with the Creeks, who claimed nearly the whole of upper Georgia as theirs by original possession, but who were being gradually pressed down toward the Gulf until, through the mediation of the United States, a treaty was finally made fixing the boundary between the two tribes along a line running about due west from the mouth of Broad river on the Savannah. Toward the west, the Chickasaw on the lower Tennessee and the Shawano on the Cumberland repeatedly turned back the tide of Cherokee invasion from the rich central valleys, while the powerful Iroquois in the far north set up an almost unchallenged claim of paramount lordship from the Ottawa river of Canada southward at least to the Kentucky river. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL Julius Bien & Co. Lith N THE CHEROKEE AND THEIR NEIGHBORS SHOWING THE TERRITORY HELD BY THEM AT VARIOUS TIMES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 11/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee consider them an albino race.14 Haywood, twenty-six years later, says that the invading Cherokee found “white people” near the head of the Little Tennessee, with forts extending thence down the Tennessee as far as Chickamauga creek. He gives the location of three of these forts. The Cherokee made war against them and drove them to the mouth of Big Chickamauga creek, where they entered into a treaty and agreed to remove if permitted to depart in peace. Permission being granted, they abandoned the country. Elsewhere he speaks of this extirpated white race as having extended into Kentucky and probably also into western Tennessee, according to the concurrent traditions of different tribes. He describes their houses, on what authority is not stated, as having been small circular structures of upright logs, covered with earth which had been [23] dug out from the inside.15 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. JULIUS BIEN & CO. LITH. N THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY BY JAMES MOONEY 1900 Harry Smith, a halfbreed born about 1815, father of the late chief of the East Cherokee, informed the author that when a boy he had been told by an old woman a tradition of a race of very small people, perfectly white, who once came and lived for some time on the site of the ancient mound on the northern side of Hiwassee, at the mouth of Peachtree creek, a few miles above the present Murphy, North Carolina. They afterward removed to the West. Colonel Thomas, the white chief of the East Cherokee, born about the beginning of the century, had also heard a tradition of another race of people, who lived on Hiwassee, opposite the present Murphy, and warned the Cherokee that they must not attempt to cross over to the south side of the river or the great leech in the water would swallow them.16 They finally went west, “long before the whites came.” The two stories are plainly the same, although told independently and many miles apart. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 17/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee [Contents] V—THE MYTHS [Contents] Cosmogonic Myths 1. HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this. When all was water, the animals were above in Gălûñ′lătĭ, beyond the arch; but it was very much crowded, and they were wanting more room. They wondered what was below the water, and at last Dâyuni′sĭ, “Beaver’s Grandchild,” the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see if it could learn. It darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no firm place to rest. Then it dived to the bottom and came up with some soft mud, which began to grow and spread on every side until it became the island which we call the earth. It was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords, but no one remembers who did this. At first the earth was flat and very soft and wet. The animals were anxious to get down, and sent out different birds to see if it was yet dry, but they found no place to alight and came back again to Gălûñ′lătĭ. At last it seemed to be time, and they sent out the Buzzard and told him to go and make ready for them. This was the Great Buzzard, the father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all over the earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When he reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired, and his wings began to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the earth there was a valley, and where they turned up again there was a mountain. When the animals above saw this, they were afraid that the whole world would be mountains, so they called him back, but the Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day. When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still dark, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go every day across the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot this way, and Tsiska′gĭlĭ′, the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled; and the Cherokee do not eat it. The conjurers put the [240] sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but it was still too hot. They raised it another time, and another, until it was seven handbreadths high and just under the sky arch. Then it was right, and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest place Gûlkwâ′gine Di′gălûñ′lătiyûñ′, “the seventh height,” because it is seven hand-breadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes along under this arch, and returns at night on the upper side to the starting place. There is another world under this, and it is like ours in everything—animals, plants, and people—save that the seasons are different. The streams that come down from the https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm#s1 192/565 4/10/2019 Myths of the Cherokee mountains are the trails by which we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by which we enter it, but to do this one must fast and go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide.