Synopses & Reviews
This remarkable book, the first major new collection of Cherokee stories published in nearly a hundred years, presents seventy-two traditional and contemporary tales from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. It features stories told by Davey Arch, Robert Bushyhead, Edna Chekelelee, Marie Junaluska, Kathi Smith Littlejohn, and Freeman Owlesix Cherokee storytellers who learned their art and their stories from family and community.
The tales gathered here include animal stories, creation myths, legends, and ghost stories as well as family tales and stories about such events in Cherokee history as the Trail of Tears. Taken together, they demonstrate that storytelling is a living, vital tradition. As new stories are added and old stories are changed or forgotten, Cherokee storytelling grows and evolves.
In an introductory essay, Barbara Duncan writes about the Cherokee storytelling tradition and explains the "oral poetics" style in which the stories are presented. This format effectively conveys the rhythmic, oral quality of the living storytelling tradition, allowing the reader to "hear" the voice of the storyteller.
Review
You can almost smell the wood smoke and see the flickering firelight on the walls.
Highlander
Review
[P]rovides the 'real' stories from Cherokee culture and not just interpretations.
Connie Regan-Blake, storyteller
Synopsis
Six celebrated Eastern Cherokee storytellers present 72 traditional and contemporary tales, including animal stories, ghost stories, histories, and legends. The first major collection of Cherokee stories in nearly a century.
Synopsis
Will have a profound influence on future publications of collections of oral history as well as those of contemporary storytellers.
Thomas Rain Crowe, Wild Mountain Times Don't vacation in the Cherokee country without first dipping into this fine book.
Fayetteville Observer-Times It's much more than a guidebook; this is part of our history.
New Orleans Times-Picayune You can almost smell the wood smoke and see the flickering firelight on the walls.
Highlander [P]rovides the 'real' stories from Cherokee culture and not just interpretations.
Connie Regan-Blake, storyteller
About the Author
Barbara R. Duncan is Education Director at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, and coauthor of Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook.
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Joyce Conseen Dugan
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Kathi Smith Littlejohn
The Origin of Legends
The Bird with Big Feet
Me-Li and the Mud Dauber
How the World Was Made
The Origin of the Pileated Woodpecker
The Playing Boysthe Pleiades
Why the Turtle's Shell Is Cracked
Why the Mole Lives Underground
How the Possum Lost His Beautiful Tail
Getting Fire
First Man and First Woman
The Valley of the Butterflies
Spearfinger
The Birds and Animals Stickball Game
The Cherokee Little People
Nunnehi, the Gentle People
Davey Arch
Grandpa and the Turtle
The Rattlesnake in the Corn
Big Snakes
The Old Man and the Birds
The Brave, the Mighty Warrior
The Strange Husband (The Owl Man)
Legends of the Uk'tena
Removal
War
Women
Cities of Refuge
The Origin of Strawberries
How the Possum Lost His Tail
Growing Up in Cherokee
Jeannie and the Booger
Grandpa and Grandma
Edna Chekelelee
Cherokee Language
The Trees Are Alive
Mother Earth's Spring Dress
The Deer
Jesus before Columbus Time
The Legend of the Corn Beads
Santeetlah Ghost Story
Storytelling
Elders on the Mountains
The Quail Dance
Feathers
The Indian Preacher
The Trail of Tears Basket
Robert Bushyhead
The Cherokee Language
Medicine Stories
The First Time I Saw a White PersonMrs. Lee
Yonder Mountain
Sequoyah
Formula against Screech Owls and Tskilis
The Hunter and Thunder
The Little People and the Nunnehi
Marie Junaluska
The Origin of the Milky Way
Freeman Owle
Introduction to the Nantahala Hiking Club Gathering
The Nikwasi Mound
Medicine and the Wolf Clan
The Earth
The Magic Lake
Going to Water
The Daughter of the Sun
How the Possum Lost His Tail
Storytelling
The Turtle and the Beaver
The Turtle and the RaccoonStealing Beauty
The Trail of Tears
The Origin of Strawberries
Corn Woman Spirit
Ganadi, the Great Hunter, and the Wild Boy
The Story of the Bat
The Removed Townhouses
Sources
Index