Cherokee Religion
Doctrines: Cherokee myth speaks of the Earth as a great island floating in the sea, held in
place by four great cords placed at the four directions and attached to the sky vault, itself made
of solid rock. When the Earth grows old and is worn out its cords will break so allowing the Earth
to retire to the deep. Our world was first formed when a Water-Beetle brought some mud to the
surface of the sea, at which point it grew and became the Earth. The animals, who until that
time lived above the sky vault, came and made their homes on the Earth...once it was dry
enough; in time humans would join them.
Notably, animals, plants, and other natural phenomena, occupy prominant roles in origin
stories; the story of Selu (corn) and the origin of medicine story, are two further examples. Also
of interest is the story of Stone Coat, the living Rock, outlined below. It will be noticed that in the
origin myth outlined above there is no reference to a Creator, and neither does the story begin
with the first act of creation but with a world already inhabited with life, this latter condition,
according to Mooney, holding true for all recorded native myths concerned with world origins.
Also, in the aforementioned myth recorded by Mooney, it is stated that the maker of the plants
and animals is unknown. The Cherokee myths collected by Mooney in the work cited, suggest
little evidence of a Creator. Nevertheless, other authors have claimed there to be such a figure
in Cherokee belief, some of whom are quoted by Mooney in the said work, and contemporary
Cherokee certainly do speak of a Creator.
According to Payne, the Cherokee believed the world to have been created by a number of
beneficent beings from an upper world; a similar belief is found among the Sioux people in the
form of Wakan Tanka. The Sun and the Moon, having been created by these beings, were left
to finish and rule the world, and in turn, according to Payne, were both adored as the Creator.
Also, the word that Mooney translates as the "great Apportioner" in the origin of strawberries
myth, and which he identifies with the Sun, has been said by the Cherokee scholars Jack and
Anna Kilpatrick to be used most commonly to designate the "Supreme Being: The Provider"; the
identity of the Supreme with the sun is said to be in error, which assertion is supported by
Payne's account above which states that Sun and Moon were created.
A notable feature of Cherokee belief is the use of kinship terms in explanations of natural
phenomena. The Sun and Moon, for example, are said to be sister and brother respectively,
whilst humans are designated as the Sun's grandchildren and the younger brothers of the
Moon. Also, the thunder is known in myth as the Little Men. These are the two sons of Kanati
(the Hunter) and Selu (corn); "...when they talk to each other we hear low rolling thunder in the
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Cherokee Religion
west" . In Cherokee myth there exists little difference between human beings and animals, and
like humans the animals are organized into tribes with chiefs, townhouses and councils, and
both are destined for the same afterlife in the Darkening land in the west. At one time humans
and animals lived in harmony, but then humans began to kill the animals for food and showed
them no respect. So the animals made war on humans and inflicted diseases upon them; the
plants, however, were friends of humankind and gave them medicines.
According to Cherokee tradition, all tribal dances and songs originated in a single event,
namely, the slaying and sacrifice of a monster called Stone Coat or the Stone Man
(Nun'yunu'wi), so named for his "skin of solid rock". As Stone Coat burned in the fire made for
him by the people, there issued forth from him songs, a gift to the people to aid them in all walks
of life. These songs were to be learned and passed on from generation to generation. The
songs were used at social gatherings, for success in hunting and warfare, and as medicine for
all kinds of sickness. The Eastern Cherokee believed that the animal killed by the hunter
following the use of a chant would come to life again, so preventing the decline of game.
Antropologist James Mooney states, however, that every animal is designated a certain life
span, and if it is killed before its time its death will only be temporary and it is soon restored to
life; the killing of the animal is thus a minor crime.
History: The Cherokee are the only surviving representative of the southern Iroquoian
peoples, the split between the ancestral Cherokee and the Northern Iroquoian occurring about
3,500-4,000 years ago; the Iroquoian languages appear to have broken up within the last
1,000-1,500 years (Snow:1996 p.9). The word 'cherokee' is foreign to the language of the
people known commonly by that name, their self designation coming from a word meaning 'real
people' or 'principal people'. (Mooney gives the native term as "Yun'wiya'" or "Ani'-Yun'wiya'",
John Ross gives the native term as "Keetoowah").
The Cherokee population for the 1600's has been estimated at about 22,000 or about 30,000
by the late seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, however, smallpox epidemics
devastated the Cherokee, especially the 1738-1739 outbreak which halved their numbers; the
disfigurement caused by smallpox led some Cherokee to suicide. From the 1760's to the early
1780's the Cherokee were almost constantly at war on their own land with European colonists;
by 1782 they were, according to Mooney, on the verge of extinction only to be hit again by
smallpox in 1783. Numbering little more than 13,000 by the early nineteenth century their
numbers rose again to about 22,000 by 1835. By this time Cherokee lands, at one time
immense, had shrunk to an area framed by the approximate coincidence of the States of North
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. It is worth pausing for a moment to consider how
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Cherokee Religion
Cherokee-European conflicts might be reflected in Cherokee ceremony.
The Booger Dance of the eastern Cherokee has been interpreted as "...a record of the
anxieties of a people, their reactions against the symbol of the invader, and their insecurity in
their dealings with the white man". Whilst the dances generally tell of the equilibrium of the
Cherokee's relationship with their environment, animate and inanimate, the Booger Dance tells
of a precarious balance. As humans the white invaders cannot be dealt with, but when, in the
dance, they are transformed into "...mythical animals and frivolous demimen..." they can be
dealt with; in this context the white invader blends into the fabric of the Cherokee universe and
obeys its rules. The function of the Dance is thus to weaken the "...harmful powers of alien
tribes and races, who, as living beings or ghosts, may be responsible for sickness or
misfortune".
After the 1812 War most of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creeks, and Chickasaws, were still living
in their homelands and intended to remain there; the tribal leaders, however, were convinced
that their people's survival depended on their ability to adopt the White man's ways.
Acculturation began seriously in 1817 with the arrival amongst the Cherokee of missionaries
from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; these taught the basics of
agriculture, domestic arts, reading and writing in English, and Christianity.
Acculturation speeded up with the introduction of Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary (a kind of
alphabet) in the 1820's. Literacy grew rapidly and in 1828 a newspaper called the Cherokee
Phoenix was published at the Cherokee Capital of New Echota; notably, the establishment of
the Phoenix owed much to the missionary Reverend Samuel Worcester. In the same year the
Cherokee established a political system based on that of the American Republic. The Cherokee
at this time owned fifteen million acres of land and were rich in livestock and slaves; many
spoke fluent English, whilst their educational, Judicial, and legislative systems were often
praised. Nevertheless, in 1829 gold was discovered on Cherokee land and Cherokees were
increasingly subjected to armed invasions by Georgians, "forcibly seizing horses and cattle,
taking possession of houses from which they had ejected the occupants, and assaulting the
owners who dared make resistance" .
On May 28th, 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which set aside land "...west of
the river Mississippi...for the reception of such tribes as may choose to exchange the lands
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Cherokee Religion
where they now reside, and remove there..." This Act applied to all tribes east of the Mississippi
River. According to President Jackson's annual message to Congress for December 7th, 1835,
all tribes to the east of the Mississippi, "...with the exception of two small bands living in Ohio
and Indiana, not exceeding 1,500 persons, and of the Cherokees...have entered into
engagements which will lead to their transplantation" . In practice, despite the Act's suggestion
of choice, removal was forced upon the Indian peoples; the usual justification for this was
expressed by Jackson in the above annual message: Indians "...cannot live in contact with a
civilized community and prosper". If Indians remained in contact with civilization their extinction
was supposed to be inevitable; removal of the Indians was therefore a moral duty.
In the Worcester vs. Georgia case of 1832, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John
Marshall determined that "...within their boundary they [the Cherokee] possessed rights with
which no state could interfere...". Georgia, however, with President Jackson's encouragement,
chose to ignore the Court's findings, and in 1833 Georgia held a lottery of Cherokee land and
property again leading to the eviction of Cherokees from their homes and the stealing of
livestock.
In 1835 Rev. John Schermerhorn was appointed U.S. Commissioner to the Cherokee. By this
time the Cherokee were divided into the Ross and Ridge factions, anti- and pro-removal
respectively. Schermerhorn signed a removal treaty with the Ridge faction at New Echota on
December 29th, 1835, ceding all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi to the Government in
return for five million dollars. For the Ridge party acceding to removal was the only way of
preserving the Cherokee nation from death, but the sale of Cherokee land carried a death
penalty; in 1839 Major Ridge, his son, and his nephew Elias Boudinot were assassinated for
signing the New Echota treaty. The majority of the Cherokee, those under John Ross, contested
the validity of the treaty (as did some of their White supporters) to no avail; the Cherokee were
given two years from the ratification of the treaty on May 18th, 1836, to leave their lands for
Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma.
In 1838 the Cherokee were rounded up by troops with rifle and bayonet and placed in
stockades where hundreds died. Following on the heels of the troops a "lawless rabble" made
"Systematic hunts... for Indian graves, to rob them of the silver pendants and other valuables
deposited with the dead". Thornton states that Mooney's estimate of 4000 deaths as a direct
result of the removal is probably far short of the true figure, which, he believes, may have been
over 8000. In his 'Farewell Address' of March 4th, 1837, President Jackson explained the
benefits of removal: "The States which had so long been retarded in their improvement by the
Indian tribes residing in the midst of them are at length relieved from the evil... the safety and
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Cherokee Religion
comfort of our own citizens have been greatly promoted by their removal...".
During the Civil War (1860-1865) the Cherokee were again divided, and whilst formally siding
with the Confederacy factions fought in both Confederate and Union armies. Cherokee homes
were raided not only by these two armies but by opposing Cherokee parties. Cherokees were
driven from their homes, schools and houses were burned, and orchards destroyed along with
churches and public buildings. Mooney claimed that the War reduced Cherokee numbers from
21,000 to 14,000.
The General Allotment or Dawes Act, passed in 1887, authorized the Government to divide up
Indian land into discrete units to be distributed among individual Indian families, whether they
agreed with the arrangement or not; 'surplus' Indian land, that remaining after its distribution,
was offered to White settlers. At this time, however, the Five Civilized Tribes - the Cherokee,
Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole - were exempt from the Act's provisions, but this
changed with the passing of the Curtis Act in 1898. The Five Nation's lands were now to be
alloted as above and tribal government's were to be dissolved on March 4th, 1906, though they
functioned until Oklahoma became a State in 1907; at this time 'Indian Territory' ceased to exist.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Cherokee power was at its height. The people
lived in concentrated, palisaded communities with extended family groups in Winter and
Summer dwellings centered around a ceremonial town house. Cherokee society was organized
on matrilocal and matrilineal lines and the mother did most of the work in the fields, where corn,
beans, squash, and other vegetables were cultivated. With the coming of the Europeans,
however, the Cherokee adapted their lifestyle according to new needs and European pressures.
The Cherokee community now featured individual farms, nuclear families, patrilineal descent,
men turned from warfare to farming (the Cherokee became an agricultural nation in the 1820's
Champagne:1994 p.269), whilst women learned the domestic arts. By about 1900 some crafts
among the eastern Cherokee were in danger of disappearing. With the advent of wage labour,
for example, came a decline in spinning and weaving as more Indians bought ready made
clothing; there were also few potters and basket weavers, though by the late 1920's these saw
an impressive revival as the tourist trade met Cherokee culture, made possible most notably by
the rapid growth of the automobile industry (Finger:1993 pp.14, 59).
Although in 1900 some eastern Cherokee still participated in traditional ceremonies such as the
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Green Corn Ceremony, these had been modified and were less frequently practised. It has
been stated that the religious meanings in Cherokee dance and drama have now been lost and
are "...no more than artistic conventions". In 1900 an ever growing majority of Cherokee
attended Christian churches, but sermons were in Cherokee and there were strong elements of
traditional cosmology in religious practices, thus evoking a highly syncretic Christianity. By 1913
there were ten churches on the Qualla Boundary reservation in North Carolina, all but two with
Indian preachers preaching in their native tongue; some of these were traditional medicine men
and ceremonial leaders who saw no conflict between traditional religion and Christian teaching.
Council meetings always opened with a Christian prayer.
On April 6-7th, 1984 at Red Clay, Tennessee, for the first time since 1837, the Eastern and
Western Cherokee met in Council "...to discuss mutual concerns about health, education,
legislation, economics, and cultural preservation" and to affirm their brotherhood. This meeting
was also the first of its kind since the Trail of Tears in 1838, which divided the Cherokee into
what became the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of North Carolina.
Among the resolutions passed by the Council was a demand for the return of skeletal remains
exhumed from archaeological sites. During 1988-1989, in a further show of brotherhood,
Cherokees all over America remembered the Trail of Tears. This act of remembrance continues
with the annual Trail of Tears sings hosted by the Snowbird Cherokee in Graham county, North
Carolina. Through such events some Eastern and Western Cherokee reestablished family ties.
Nevertheless, whilst acknowledging their common heritage with the Western Cherokee, the
Eastern Band affirm their own identity as a unique tribe with a distinctive history.
According to anthropologist Duane King, the Eastern Band have retained more of their myths,
legends, and traditional dances (though modified in form) than the Western Cherokee, although
in both groups the native language is fast disappearing. Some progressives are, however,
resigned to the passing away of the old traditions. In 1988 Chief Youngdeer said: "We hate to
lose them, but the old ways don't put bread on the table". Nevertheless, kinship and tribal
identity, whilst not easily defined, continues to be important and according to Finger the
Cherokee wish to retain their land base whilst moving toward greater self-sufficiency.
Symbols: The Sacred Fire. According to Payne, the New Fire Ceremony was part of the
annual Spring festival, and was presided over by seven persons commissioned to kindle the
new fire; the old fires had been extinguished. The sacred fire used "...the inner bark of seven
different kinds of trees. This bark was carefully chosen from the east side of the trees, and was
clear and free from blemish" . Once the sacred fire was kindled the women drew from it a flame
which was used to light a new fire in every home in Cherokee country. "One man, called the fire
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Cherokee Religion
keeper, stayed always in the townhouse to feed and tend the fire". A contemporary Cherokee
states that on the trail of tears in 1838 (see History section) someone secretly carried the
sacred fire, kept it alive. "The fire", she says, "signified the spirit of the Creator, of the sun [the
life-giver], of the people - and the Cherokee have kept it burning for centuries". The fire also
shares the essence of the Creator, the All-Mystery.
The East direction. The east is said to be the direction of triumph, and of the red light
immediately preceding sunrise "...which the Cherokee say is 'impregnated with miraculous
creative power'. East is the heading for hope and determination and life", it is the direction from
which comes that life-giving power that stirs all beings into motion with the coming of the dawn.
This suggests the significance of using the east facing bark of the tree for the sacred fire, itself a
symbol of, and indeed, a requirement for life.
Sacred numbers: It is the numbers four and seven that are sacred to the Cherokee. The
number four is significant of the four directions and of wholeness, but it is the number seven
which seems to be the most prominant. There are seven clans; seven councillors presided over
regular festivals (recall the New Fire Ceremony above); there was a regular sacrifice every
seventh day, and in "remote times" a sacrifice was held once every seven years .
It is said that following the Trail of Tears in 1838, the elders of the Cherokee Nation prophecied
that in the seventh generation the people would be strong again; this prophecy is believed to
have been fulfilled with the reunion of the Eastern and Western Cherokee at Red Clay,
Tennesse in 1984 (Awiakta:1993 pp.108, 151, 181. See also History section). Arvol Looking
Horse of the Sioux Nation and Keeper of the Sacred Pipe, also states that the healing of that
Nation has now begun, in the seventh generation (Talking Stick Journal Winter/Spring 1996).
One significance of the number seven is said to be "renewal and return", which, seen in the
context of the New Fire ceremony above, alongside the symbolism of the east and of the fire
itself, defines well that ceremony's meaning.
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