Long-Ago Stories of the Eastern Cherokee Read online

  Published by The History Press

  Charleston, SC 29403

  www.historypress.net

  Copyright © 2008 by Lloyd Arneach

  All rights reserved

  Illustrations by Elizabeth Ellison.

  First published 2008

  Second printing 2009

  Third printing 2011

  Fourth printing 2012

  Fifth printing 2013

  e-book edition 2013

  ISBN 978.1.62584.459.0

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Arneach, Lloyd.

  Long-ago stories of the eastern Cherokee / Lloyd Arneach.

  p. cm.

  print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-031-0 (alk. paper)

  1. Cherokee Indians—Folklore. I. Title.

  E99.C5A874 2008

  398.2089’97557—dc22

  2007050746

  Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  CONTENTS

  HOW THE BEAR LOST HIS TAIL

  THE BEAR MAN

  THE HUMMINGBIRD AND THE CRANE RACE

  CREATION STORY

  HOW THE DEER GOT HIS ANTLERS

  THE FIRST FIRE

  THE FIRST STRAWBERRY

  THE FIRST TOBACCO

  ISHI

  THE MAGIC LAKE OF THE ANIMALS

  THE MILKY WAY

  WHY THE MINK SMELLS

  PLEIADES AND THE PINE

  WHY THE POSSUM’S TAIL IS BARE

  THE RABBIT GOES DUCK HUNTING

  THE REMOVED TOWNHOUSES

  SEQUOYAH

  THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS

  SPEARFINGER

  THE TRAIL OF TEARS

  WHY THE TURKEY GOBBLES

  WHY THE TERRAPIN’S SHELL IS CRACKED

  UKTENA

  WOUNDED KNEE

  HOW THE BEAR LOST HIS TAIL

  This story took place long ago. In those days, the Bear had a long, bushy tail, and this story tells what happened to his tail.

  The Bear woke up in the middle of the winter. He came out of his den and began looking around for food. Everything was covered with snow, and he started walking through the forest. He saw Brother Fox coming through the forest toward him.

  Brother Fox had a big stringer of fish hanging over his shoulder. He looked up and saw the Bear coming toward him, but it was too late for him to run away with his fish. He didn’t want to tell Brother Bear he had stolen his fish from the Mink, because then the Bear would take them away from him. So Brother Fox came up with an idea about how he could trick the Bear.

  The Bear continued walking along the trail and approached Brother Fox. The Bear said, “That’s a lot of fish you’ve got there. Could you give me one of those fish? I’m awfully hungry.”

  The Fox knew that he couldn’t give the Bear one fish, because then he would want another and another and another. So Brother Fox said, “Bear, I’ll tell you how I caught all of these fish and you can catch more fish than I’ve got here.”

  And the Bear said, “How did you catch all of those fish?”

  The Fox replied, “I went down to the river and I used a rock to knock a hole in the ice. I turned around and stuck my tail down in that hole. The fish started biting the hairs on my tail and it hurt, but that meant more and more fish were biting my tail. I kept waiting and waiting until finally I stood up and I had all of these fish hanging on my tail. Your tail is much bigger than mine and you will catch more fish than I did.”

  The Bear went down to the river. He found a big rock and used it to knock a hole in the ice. Then he turned around and stuck his long, bushy tail down in the hole. It wasn’t long before his tail started to hurt. He thought of all the fish that were biting his tail. Finally, the pain was so strong that he couldn’t stand it any longer. The Bear tried to stand up, but he couldn’t because the ice had frozen around his tail. He kept straining to stand until finally he gave one last push with his hind legs and pulled free. But he left his long, bushy tail frozen in the ice and all he had left was a short stub of a tail.

  And that is why, whenever the Fox sees the Bear in the forest, the Fox runs away—because the Bear still remembers how the Fox caused him to lose his long, bushy tail.

  THE BEAR MAN

  A Man was hunting in the woods when he saw a Black Bear. He followed the Bear until he was able to shoot it with an arrow. The Bear kept moving. The Man followed and shot the Bear again and again. The Bear did not drop. This was a medicine Bear and it could talk and read the thoughts of people.

  The Bear stopped and pulled the arrows from its side. He told the Hunter, “Your arrows will not kill me.” He said, “Come to my house and we will live together.”

  The Hunter thought, “He wants to kill me.”

  The Bear read his thoughts and said, “I will not harm you.”

  The Hunter then asked, “How will I get food?”

  The Bear replied, “There will be plenty of food.”

  Finally, the Hunter decided to go with the Bear.

  They came to a cave in the mountain. The Bear said, “They are having a council inside. We will see what they decide to do.”

  They went into the cave and it widened as they went deeper. They saw all kinds of Bears: white, black, brown, young and old. The chief was a great white Bear. The Hunter and the Bear sat in a corner, but the Bears could smell the Hunter.

  They asked, “What is that bad smell?”

  The Bear chief said, “It is only a stranger come to visit us. Don’t talk like that.”

  It was getting hard to find food in the mountains, and they had sent Bears out to find food. Two Bears came back and said they had found an area in the lowlands where the chestnuts and acorns were knee-deep. They were happy that they would not starve and got ready to dance.

  The leader of the Bears was one the Cherokee called “Long Hams.” He was a big Black Bear that was always lean. After the dance, the Bears noticed the Hunter’s bow and arrows. One said, “This is what Man kills us with. Let us learn how to use them and we can use them against him.”

  They took the bow and arrows from the Hunter. A Bear put the arrow on the bow and drew the string back. The string got caught in his long claws and the arrow fell to the ground. The Bears realized they could not use the bow and arrows, so they gave them back to the Hunter. The dance and council were now over and everybody left.

  The Hunter and the Bear were the last to leave. They traveled on until they came to another cave. The Bear said, “This is where I live.”

  He went inside the cave. The Hunter followed him. The Hunter was very hungry and he thought, “How will I get something to eat?”

  The Bear read his thoughts and sat on his hind legs. He rubbed his stomach with his forepaws and when he opened his paws they were filled with chestnuts. He gave them to the Hunter. He rubbed his stomach with his forepaws again and when he opened his paws they were filled with huckleberries. He gave these to the Hunter. He rubbed his stomach with his forepaws again. When he opened his paws they were filled with blackberries. He gave them to the Hunter. He rubbed his stomach with his forepaws again and when he opened his paws they were filled with acorns. The Hunter said he had had enough.

  The Hunter lived with the Bear in the cave all winter long. The Hunte
r started growing long hair all over his body. He started acting like a Bear, but he still looked like a Man. In early spring, the Bear told the Hunter, “Your people are getting ready for a great hunt. Soon, they will come to find us. They will kill me and take these clothes from me”—he meant his skin—“but they will not harm you. They will take you back with them.”

  A few days later the Bear said, “This is the day they will come to kill me. The Split-noses will come first to find me.” Split-noses are what the Bears called Dogs in those days.

  The Bear continued, “They will kill me and drag me outside the cave. They will take off my clothes and then cut me into many pieces. You must cover the blood with leaves. They will take you away. When you have traveled a little ways, look back and you will see something.”

  Soon, they heard the Dogs coming up the mountain. The Dogs came to the front of the cave and stood barking into the cave. The Hunters looked into the cave and saw the Bear. They shot several arrows into the Bear and he dropped to the ground. They went into the cave and pulled the Bear out. The Dogs were still barking into the cave. The Hunters looked into the cave again and saw the Man. They started to release their arrows again, but they realized it was a Man and not a Bear. They brought him out of the cave. As the Man was standing outside the cave, the Hunters started skinning the Bear. Then they cut the Bear up into quarters so they could carry him away. When they had finished, they picked up the quarters and the skin and started down the mountain.

  The Man covered the blood with leaves and started after the Hunters. After they had gone a little ways, the Man looked back and saw the Bear rise from the leaves, shake them off and disappear into the woods.

  When they got close to their village the Man told the Hunters, “They had to put him where nobody could see him and he had to fast and take no water for seven days and seven nights. He had to do this so the Bear’s nature would leave him and he could live like a Man again.”

  They put him in a house and closed it off. The Man’s wife found out and came to take him home. They refused to let her see him. She came back every morning and every afternoon, begging and pleading with them to let her take her husband home. Finally, after several days, they let her take him with her. A short time later, the Man died.

  If he had remained closed up and had fasted for the entire seven days, he would have been rid of the Bear spirit and would have been able to live as a Man again.

  THE HUMMINGBIRD AND THE CRANE RACE

  There once was a beautiful woman with whom both the Crane and the Hummingbird were in love. The Hummingbird was good-looking, and the woman liked the Hummingbird. The Crane was big and awkward, and he was always coming around to see her. She wasn’t interested in the Crane, but she couldn’t persuade him to stay away. Finally she said to the Crane, “You race the Hummingbird and I will marry whoever wins.”

  The Crane agreed and so did the Hummingbird.

  The woman thought the Hummingbird would win because he was so fast. She did not know that the Crane could fly all night long. They had agreed to start at her house and then fly around the world; whichever one returned to the house first would get to marry her.

  The race began. The Hummingbird darted off, and he was gone like a flash of light. The Crane was slowly flapping along behind him. The Hummingbird flew all day and when evening came the Hummingbird was far ahead. He flew down to a tree limb to sleep for the night. But the Crane flew all night long and passed the Hummingbird a little after midnight. The next morning he came to a stream and stopped to have breakfast.

  The Hummingbird woke up that morning and started flying, thinking how easily he was going to win the race. He passed the Crane while he was having breakfast. He didn’t understand how the Crane had managed to get ahead of him. But he flew hard, and soon the Crane was far behind him again. The Crane finished eating and started flying. He flew all day and into the night, and this time he passed the Hummingbird before midnight. Each night the Crane passed the Hummingbird earlier and earlier, and it took the Hummingbird longer and longer to catch up to Crane.

  On the sixth day it was the middle of the afternoon before the Hummingbird finally caught up to Crane. On the seventh day, the Crane was a short distance from the woman’s house when he stopped by a stream for breakfast. After eating, he fixed himself up and flew on to the woman’s house. He arrived midmorning. The Hummingbird finally arrived late in the afternoon. Crane had won the race!

  The woman declared that she would never have such an ugly fellow as the Crane for her husband—so she stayed single.

  CREATION STORY

  In the beginning, all of the Animals lived in the sky above the great sky vault. There were so many of them that it was getting crowded. They looked below at the water-covered earth.

  They sent down the little Water Beetle. She swam around on the surface for a while and then took a deep breath. She dove deep, down to the bottom, gathered mud in her front legs and started swimming up toward the surface. Soon she was close to the surface, but she was running out of breath. Just below the surface she released the mud and desperately swam upward with all of her legs. When she reached the surface and lay on her back, gasping for air, she realized that she had dropped the mud. She looked around and she saw that the mud was floating on the water’s surface and was growing larger. She went back into the sky.

  As the Animals watched from above, they saw the mud grow larger and larger. Finally, it stopped growing, and now the Animals waited for it to dry. They sent down different Birds. Each would fly over the mud trying to find a dry area on which to land. The mud was still wet, and they all came back to wait.

  Finally, the great-grandfather of all the Buzzards we know today was sent down. He flew over the land for so long that he was getting tired. He was flying lower and lower until, when he came to Cherokee country, his wingtips touched the ground and made valleys. Mud got on his wingtips, and when he raised them the mud would fly off and form mountains. The other Animals thought that all of the earth would now be mountains and valleys, so they called the Buzzard back. But, to this day, Cherokee country is made up of mountains and valleys.

  It was cold and dark in the beginning, so the Conjurers set the sun in the sky. But they set the sun too low and it burned the shell of the Crawfish red. They set it higher and higher until finally it was at the right height. The Cherokee say that the sun is at its highest level at noon. They call this level “seven hands high” or the “seventh level.”

  HOW THE DEER GOT HIS ANTLERS

  In the beginning, the Animals could talk with one another. In those days, the Deer didn’t have the antlers that he has today, and this story tells how the Deer got his antlers.

  One day the Deer and the Rabbit got into a tremendous argument. The Rabbit said, “I run so fast even I don’t know where I’m going to end up.”

  The Deer responded, “I can leap a great distance in a single bound.”

  The Rabbit said, “While you are up in the air, I’ll run underneath you and I’ll get there before you come down.” And they continued to argue back and forth.

  The other Animals got tired of listening to them argue all the time. Finally, one of them said, “Why don’t you have a race? Whoever wins the race we will know is the fastest Animal of all.”

  The Deer immediately agreed, but the Rabbit said, “I don’t run for nothing. It’s got to be worth my time!”

  One of the Animals had made a beautiful set of antlers, and he said, “I will give this set of antlers to whoever wins the race.”

  The Deer looked at the set of antlers and thought how they would look on his head and he said, “Yes, I will run for the antlers.”

  The Rabbit looked at the antlers and he thought how they would look on his head and he said, “Yes! I will run for the antlers.” Then he asked, “Where shall we run?”

  One Animal suggested, “Why don’t you start here?” He drew a mark on the ground and then he said, “You can run through that thicket over there.”

&nb
sp; Once again, the Deer immediately agreed. But the Rabbit was a little slow. He said, “Well, I am new to this area. Can I go into the thicket and look around?”

  The other Animals said, “Sure, go ahead.”

  So, the Rabbit went into the thicket and he was gone for a while. The Animals waited and waited. Finally, they sent a little Animal into the thicket after the Rabbit.

  In a few minutes the little Animal came out of the thicket and said, “The Rabbit is cutting a shortcut through the thicket. He’s going to cheat!”

  The other Animals couldn’t believe the Rabbit would cheat in something this important. But in a few minutes, the Rabbit came out of the thicket. He lined up on the mark and told the Deer, “If you don’t get up here the antlers are going to be mine.”

  One of the Animals said, “Rabbit, one of us said you’re cutting a shortcut through the thicket and that you’re going to cheat!”

  And the Rabbit said, “No! No! I’m not!”

  And another Animal said, “Rabbit, one of you is lying. We will all go into the thicket to find out who is lying.”

  All of the Animals went into the thicket. Sure enough, they saw where the Rabbit had been cutting a shortcut through the thicket. They all came back out of the thicket. The Rabbit was quiet—he had been caught in his lie.

  Finally, one of the Animals said, “Rabbit, you would cheat and you would lie to win these antlers. Whoever wears these antlers must wear them with honor and respect. Rabbit, you could not wear them with honor and respect. So, we will give them to the Deer.”

  They called the Deer forward and put the antlers on his head. They grew into his head instantly, and they have grown there from that day until this. But the Deer loses his antlers once a year to remind him that it was not always so.