Myths of the Cherokee Extract from the Nineteenth Annual...

According to Adair, who makes it a little more formal among the Gulf tribes, “When an Indian makes his first address to the young woman he intends to marry, she is obliged by ancient custom to sit by him till he hath done eating and drinking, whether she likes or dislikes him; but afterward she is at her own choice whether to stay or retire” (Hist. Am. Indians, p. 139).

Would surely die—In Cherokee myth and ritual we frequently meet the idea that one who reveals supernatural secrets will die. Sometimes the idea is reversed, as when the discovery of the nefarious doings of a wizard or conjurer causes his death. The latter belief has its parallel in Europe.

Smooth as a pumpkin—This is the rendering of the peculiar tautologic Cherokee expression, i′ya iya′-tăwi′skage—tăwi′skage i′ya-iyu′stĭ, literally, “pumpkin, of pumpkin smoothness—smooth like a pumpkin.” The rendering is in line with the repetition in such children’s stories as that of “The House that Jack Built,” but the translation fails to convey the amusing sound effect of the original.

A horse—Although the reference to the horse must be considered a more modern interpolation it may easily date back two centuries, or possibly even to De Soto’s expedition in 1540. Among the plains tribes the horse quickly became so essential a part of Indian life that it now enters into their whole social and mythic system.

86.Yahula (p. 347): This fine myth was obtained in the Territory from Wafford, who had it from his uncle, William Scott, a halfbreed who settled upon Yahoola creek shortly after the close of the Revolution. Scott claimed to have heard the bells and the songs, and of the story itself Wafford said, “I’ve heard it so often and so much that I’m inclined to believe it.” It has its explanation in the beliefs connected with the Nûñnĕ′hĭ (see number 78 and notes), in whom Wafford had firm faith.

Yahula—This is a rather frequent Cherokee personal name, but seems to be of Creek origin, having reference to the song used in the “black drink” or “busk” ceremony of that tribe, and the songs which the lost trader used to sing may have been those of that ceremony. See the glossary.

Tinkling of the bells—Among the southern tribes in the old days the approach of a trader’s cavalcade along the trail was always heralded by the jingling of bells hung about the necks of the horses, somewhat in the manner of our own winter sleighing parties. Among the plains tribes the children’s ponies are always equipped with collars of sleigh bells.

In his description of a trader’s pack-train before the Revolution, Bartram says (Travels, p. 439): “Every horse has a bell on, which being stopped, when we start in the morning, with a twist of grass or leaves, soon shakes out, and they are never stopped again during the day. The constant ringing and clattering of the bells, smacking of the whips, whooping and too frequent cursing these miserable quadrupeds, cause an incessant uproar and confusion inexpressibly disagreeable.”

88.First contact with whites (p. 350): The story of the jug of whisky left near a spring was heard first from Swimmer; the ulûñsû′tĭ story from Wafford; the locomotive story from David Blythe. Each was afterward confirmed from other sources.

The story of the book and the bow, quoted from the Cherokee Advocate of October 26, 1844, was not heard on the reservation, but is mentioned by other authorities. According to an old Cherokee quoted by Buttrick, “God gave the red man a book and a paper and told him to write, but he merely made marks on the paper, and as he could not read or write, the Lord gave him a bow and arrows, and gave the book to the white man.” Boudinot, in “A Star in the West,”44 quoted by the same author, says: “They have it handed down from their ancestors, that the book which the white people have was once theirs; that while they had it they prospered exceedingly; but that the white people bought it of them and learned many things from it, while the Indians lost credit, offended the Great Spirit, and suffered exceedingly from the neighboring nations; that the Great Spirit took pity on them and directed them to this country,” etc. It is simply another version of the common tale of decadent nations, “We were once as great as you.”

89.The Iroquois wars (p. 351): The Iroquois league—The Iroquois league consisted originally of a confederacy of five kindred tribes, the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, in what is now the state of New York; to these were added the cognate Tuscarora after their expulsion from Carolina about 1715. The name Iroquois, by which they were known to the French, is supposed to be a derivative from some Indian term. To the English they were known as the Five, afterward the Six Nations. They called themselves by a name commonly spelt Hodenosaunee, and interpreted “People of the Long House.” Of this symbolic long house the Mohawk guarded the eastern door, while the Seneca protected the western. Their remarkable governmental and clan system is still well preserved, each tribe, except the Mohawk and Oneida, having eight clans, arranged in two groups or phratries. The Mohawk and Oneida are said to have now but three clans apiece, probably because of their losses by withdrawals to the French missions. The Seneca clans, which are nearly the same for the other tribes, are the Wolf, Bear, Turtle, Beaver, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. The confederacy is supposed to have been formed about the middle of the sixteenth century, and by 1680 the Iroquois had conquered and destroyed or incorporated all the surrounding tribes, and had asserted a paramount claim over the whole territory from the Cherokee border to Hudson bay and from southern New England to the Mississippi. According to a careful estimate in 1677 the Five Nations then numbered 2,150 warriors, or about 10,750 persons.

The Tuscarora in Carolina were estimated a few years later at 1,200 warriors, or 5,000 persons, but this is probably an exaggeration. The league afterward lost heavily by wars with the French, and still more by withdrawals of Christianized Indians to the French Catholic mission colonies at Caughnawaga, Saint Regis, and elsewhere, the Mohawk being the chief sufferers. The Revolution brought about another separation, when about two-fifths of those remaining, including nearly all of the Mohawk and Cayuga, removed in a body to Canada. A mixed band of Seneca and Cayuga, known as the “Seneca of Sandusky,” had previously settled in Ohio, whence they removed in 1831 to Indian Territory. Between 1820 and 1826 the greater portion of the Oneida removed from New York to lands in Wisconsin purchased from the Menomini. In spite, however, of wars and removals the Iroquois have held their own with a tenacity and a virility which mark their whole history, and both in this country and in Canada they are fairly prosperous and are increasing in population, being apparently more numerous to-day than at any former period. Those in New York and Pennsylvania, except the Saint Regis, and on the Grand River reservation in Canada, constituting together about one-half of the whole number, still keep up the forms and ceremonies of the ancient league.

According to a special bulletin of the census of 1890 the total number of Indians then belonging to the tribes originally constituting the Six Nations was 15,833, of whom 8,483 were living in Canada and 7,350 in the United States, excluding from the latter count 37 resident members of other tribes. Those in the United States were on six reservations in the State of New York, one in Pennsylvania, one in Wisconsin, and one in the Indian Territory, and were classed as follows: