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The Cherokee called the moon the suns brother with implications of an incestuous
relationship. They also called the moon our grandparent.
Other groups associated the moon with things female, rain, fertility, and menstruation
To live in this world meant trying to maintain a balance between the upper and under
worlds.
Fire, from the upper world, was opposed to water, from the under world. It was up to man
to keep the two apart.
The Cherokee had a river deity, the long man, a giant with his head in the foothills and his
feet far down in the lowlands, pressing always, restless to attain a certain goal and
speaking in murmurs only a priest could interpret.
The Cherokee had an origin story in which there was only the upper and under worlds.
Then the middle, this world was created. The creatures of the upper world saw the middle
world and came down to live. When they came to the middle world, however, they began
to degenerate, to grow smaller. Many of the upper world saw what was happening and
left, but the ones who had degenerated could not leave and became the creatures we
have in this world now.
Analyzing this story what we have is that ideal types, bigger animals came down to the
earth to live but left, leaving behind less than ideal types who degenerated into the forms
the Cherokee knew.
This is an interesting story if one considers the early megafauna that went extinct and
makes one wonder if this story is an artifact of that long ago time.
This world became populated with three non-spiritual beings, men, animals and plants.
Men and plants became friends while men and animals are opposed. Plants are very
important in treating disease and in medicine among the Cherokee.
There were three categories of animals: four footed such as deer, birds such as eagles
and vermin such as snakes, lizards, frogs, fish and insects. Each category was broken
down so that Indians had names for all the species that were important to them.
There were symbolic associations with some animals.
The falcon can dive and kill instantly, consequently the forked eye design found on
gorgets as far back as the Hopewellian period.
Creek hunters would carry a pouch with red ochre and a crystal. They would open the
pouch to the rays of the sun and then paint marks around their eyes in the likeness of the
forked falcon eye.
The falcon was also the model for the tlanuwa a huge bird of prey in Cherokee oral
traditions. The bird was said to swoop down and kill its victims with its large sharp breast.
The eagle was associated with the upper world and peace and perfect order.
The kingfisher was invoked by Cherokee shamans to pluck out objects from peoples
bodies that have magically intruded. The kingfisher flies down and plucks fish out of the
water.
Buzzards were invoked in healing because the Turkey Buzzard is able to expose itself to
dead things and live.
The long eared owl was considered an ill omen and a witch
The red bellied woodpecker was associated with swiftness, cunning and war.
The ivory billed woodpecker was often depicted in motifs and may have had a similar
meaning.
The wild turkey was also associated with war. One of the war hoops sounded like a
turkey gobble.
Under world monsters would come up from the under world through rivers, lakes,
waterfalls and mountain caves.
The uktena combined features of all three categories of animals, a scaly body, deer horns
and wings and it had a diamond shaped crest on its forhead.
The koasatis was a snake crawfish, a snake with horns that lived in streams and would
climb up on the shore and wrap itself around a body and pull it into the water.
Southeast Indians believed that the four cardinal directions were associated with certain
forces and entities.
East: the sun, red, sacred fire, blood, life success
West: moon, souls of the dead, black, death
North: cold, blue or purple, trouble and defeat
South: warmth, white, peace, happiness
The Cherokee believed thunder, Kanati, the red man lived above the sky vault in the east.
The red man was good and only killed white men. They called him white so as not to
offend him.
Kanati was opposed to the red man, black man, above the vault in the west.
Colors also had symbolic meaning:
Brown: upward
Yellow and blue: trouble