This week I am reading the Cherokee Unit.
The followings actions are how the world was made.
Everything used to be water and all of the animals lived above it on a rock. This
was a small rock and the animals wanted more room. They sent the water beetle
to the water to try to find what was below it. The beetle finds mud and brings
it to the surface, which then begins to form the island of Earth. The Earth
then became fastened to the sky with 4 cords. The animals then sent a buzzard
to see if the mud was ready to be lived on. Every time the buzzard flapped its
wings, a valley was created and when it flew up a mountain was made. The Earth
finally became dry, but it was too dark. They then built an arch path and put
the sun in the sky so it could follow this path. Afterwards, nocturnal animals
were made and it was made so a woman could only have a baby once a year.
When the world was first made, there was no fire. Therefore,
the Thunders sent lightning that lit a tree on fire. The animals tried to get
the fire, but a raven and 3 owls fail. Snakes and four-footed animals fail to
bring the fire back as well. Finally, a water spider volunteers to go. The
spider spins thread and makes a bowl to carry a coal from the fire with and
then returns to all of the animals with it and there has been fire ever since.
Some men decide to find where the sun lives. On their
journey, they see many tribes, including some that they didn’t even know
existed. The finally reach where the sky touches the ground and find the arch
that it travels on. The sun had a human figure and nobody could get near it, so
they all returned home as old men.
There were 7 boys who did nothing but play a game with
stones. Their mothers were upset that they didn’t work in the cornfields, so
one day for dinner they cook stones instead of corn. The boys begin a dance and
start rising up into the sky. Only one of the boy’s mothers successfully gets
him, but he slams into the ground and becomes embedded. The other 6 boys rise
all the way to form the constellation Pleiades and the boy stuck in the ground
grows into a tree from his mother’s tears.
Sun and Moon were a sister and brother. The sun would get a
visitor every night when it was dark, but she could not see who it was. She
then rubbed ashes on the boy’s head and the next night when the moon came out,
it had spots on it from the ashes. A few other fun facts we learn: the moon is
in the sky to remind us not to cheat and the moon gets eclipsed because a frog
is trying to swallow it.
A man’s dog tells him one day that there will be a terrible
flood and to build a raft. The man builds a raft for his family and the flood
kills everyone on the Earth except him. They hear dancing and think there are
other survivors, but it was only ghosts that had been dancing.
There used to be only one tobacco plant in the world and the
geese stole it. An old woman was growing sickly without it and many animals try
to retrieve the tobacco. All of them are unsuccessful until the hummingbird is
able to steal the tobacco back. He blows it into the woman and she becomes well
again.
A man and woman got into a fight one day and the woman began
to walk away from the man. He did everything to get her attention, but nothing
worked. The sun feels bad for him and places berries in the path of the woman,
but nothing stops her until she sees the first strawberries known to man. When
she stops, she remembers her husband and sees him and they return to their
home.
The rabbit challenges the otter to a competition of hunting
ducks. To do this, the rabbit makes a noose and ties it around the neck of a
duck. As the duck flies away, the rabbit holds on until he can’t anymore and
then falls into the trunk of a tree. After a long time in the tree, the rabbit
gets let out by some children and then runs away.
All of the animals were arguing about which had the best
coat. They hear that it is the otter, so the rabbit decides to go see for
himself. The rabbit tricks the otter into traveling back with him to attend
council and on the way he tells the otter that he should hang his coat before
he goes to sleep in case it starts raining fire. The otter did this and while
he was asleep the rabbit steals his coat.
The possum used to have a large tail and the rabbit became
jealous of this. The rabbit was going around informing the animals of the
upcoming council. He informs the possum and then goes to the cricket, who is
known for cutting hair. The rabbit tells the cricket to cut the tail of the
possum, which he does. The possum does not notice this until the council that
night, where he gets embarrassed.
A terrapin and a rabbit decide to have a race one day. The
rabbit gives the terrapin a head start. The terrapin has his friends position
themselves, one on top of each ridge. Each time the rabbit got the bottom of a
ridge, a new terrapin on the next ridge would start moving and the rabbit could
not catch up no matter how hard he tried. The original terrapin placed himself
on the last ridge and crosses the finish line.
A man named Flint had been helping to kill all of the
animals. The rabbit decides to visit Flint one day and invites him back to his
house for dinner. Once Flint fell asleep, the rabbit pierces Flint’s body with
a stake and runs into his hole. Flint blows up and a piece hits the rabbit and
then yet another one hits him and splits his lip.
We first learn that the deer got its antlers from winning a
race against the rabbit, where the horns were awarded and now the deer wears
them ever since.
The rabbit then challenges the deer to chew threw a
grapevine. When the deer can’t, the rabbit offers to file his teeth for him to
make them sharp. The rabbit then files the deer’s teeth all the way down to the
gums and the deer has had blunt teeth ever since then.
The Terrapin’s Escape From The Wolves
The possum and terrapin were hunting persimmons when they
found a tree of fruit. They working well together until a wolf came and started
stealing the persimmons. One of them was so large that it choked the wolf to
death. The Terrapin then used the wolf’s ears for spoons. The animals throw him
away into the river, but he survives.
The birds, captained by the Eagle, and the animals,
captained by the bear, decide to play a game against each other. The bird team
creates a bat and flying squirrel and wins the game without the bear even
touching the ball.
The hummingbird and the crane both wanted the same beautiful
woman, so they decide to have a race to see who gets her. The crane wins the
race with his slow and steady flying, which surprises the hummingbird. The
woman though, decides to stay single because she does not want to marry the
crane.
The daughter of a widow was beginning to meet suitor’s to be
her husband. Her mother told her that she should marry a good hunter. The
mother tests a suitor that comes to the house and sends him hunting, but he
returns with only 3 small fish. The man keeps returning, unproductive, but one
day the mother follows the husband. She sees that he changes into an owl and
once he realizes he is caught he runs away into the woods.
Another widow and daughter set out to get the daughter
married to a man, this time they are looking for a good worker. A man comes by
and marries the daughter and is then given a test as a worker. For two days the
man works all day and misses dinner, but then they realize he is a huhu and has
been returning to his people. He then gets kicked out of the house.
A long time ago the sun became angry and tried to kill
everyone on Earth. The people on Earth changed one man into a snake and sent it
to kill the sun. The snake, Uktena, failed at this job and then gets sent to
where all the other dangerous animals live. Only one warrior has ever
successfully killed a Uktena and its heart must be given blood every day. The
heart is also used for prophecy.
Agan’uni’tsi is a magician that was captured by the
Cherokees in a war. The magician is sent to go capture the Uktena’s heart, but
he keeps seeing other animals that are not the Uktena. He finally finds the
snake and begins to get chased by it, but gets shot in the heart with an arrow.
Since it was poisonous, the magician has all the birds eat the dead snake until
just the heart is remaining and then he takes it. He then becomes the greatest
medicine man in the tribe.
Two brothers were hunting when the stumbled across an Uktena
killing a man. One of the borthers saves the man from the snake, so he gives
him a scale from the Uktena as a gift and promises that he will always be
successful when hunting. He also tells him how to go heal his sick brother,
which he does and then successfully hunts from then on.
A man was visiting family and before he left to go hunting
he was warned not to go near the dangerous Uksu’hi snake. Curiosity gets the
better of him and he goes there anyways, where the snake chases him and then
wraps him up. The man then remembers that the snake does not like sweat and he
rubs some on the snake, which lets the man go and then he returns home.
Another snake, this one called the Ustu’tli lived on a
mountain. One day a man decides to go find the dangerous snake. He finds it and
then it begins to chase him, but after a long chase he sets the grass on fire.
The fire sends the snake scurrying backwards, but it can’t escape and
eventually gets burned to death.
A boy who lived with his grandmother would go bird hunting
every day and give her what he caught. The rest of the boy’s family grows
jealous and he decides to leave them all. He goes hunting the next day and
returns with deer horns, but insists on staying in the house alone that night.
That night an Uktena eats the boy and leaves just his two legs, but the rest of
his body becomes snake.
Two different hunters had caught some squirrels one day, but
one warned the other not to eat them or he would become a snake. He does it
anyway and turns into a snake the next day and slivers away.
A man was on his way home from hunting one day when a group
of rattlesnakes tell him that his wife had killed their leader. They insist he
sacrifices his wife in return. He obeys them and sends her outside to get
water, where he knew a rattlesnake was waiting for her. Before se dies, he
tells her to sing a song when she sees them so they know not to kill her.
There was a man and a girl who like each other, but the girl’s
mother did not approve. He makes a trumpet and it makes his voice sound like a
bullfrog. This scares the mother and she agrees to let the man marry her
daughter. Soon after, the daughter hears the bullfrog sound and then the frog
turns into a human and marries her. The man has a tadpole mouth and the family
does not approve of him and when the discover his tadpole mouth they kick him
out.
