Cherokee Fables: How the World was Made

The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this.

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: How the World was Made. Read the full post (897 words, 8 images, estimated 3:35 mins reading time)

Part 1: Quanah Parker, Comanche Warrior

Comanche Territory

Recently, my wife and I drove from our home in southern Colorado through the Panhandle of Texas on our way to San Antonio.  As we passed through the little town of Quanah, Texas, I was reminded of its namesake, Quanah Parker, who was one of the last Comanche Chiefs.   Having grown up near Quanah, I have heard many stories about the great chief and the Comanche and his story is worthy of retelling.

This is a preview of Part 1: Quanah Parker, Comanche Warrior. Read the full post (859 words, 5 images, estimated 3:26 mins reading time)

 

Courtney Miller

Native American Skies: Cosmic Revolution

Because the stars and constellations in the night sky revolve around the North Star, it has been considered the center of the cosmos for many ancient cultures.  And those constellations near the North Star often hold a special place in their cosmology.  For the Navajo, for instance, the two neighboring constellations and the North Star form a unit.

The Navajo call the unit Nahookos (Na hoe kos).   The North Star is Nahookos Bikq (Na hoe kos Bih kwo), which means “Central Fire”.   Picture a Navajo hogan with the hearth in the center of the room.   Sitting next to the fire would be the father and mother (or grandfather and grandmother).   Likewise, next to the Nahookos Bikq are the constellations Nahookos Bika (Na hoe kos Bih kah) which means “Revolving Male” and Nahookos Bi’aad (Na hoe kos Bih aad) which means “Revolving Female”.

 

The position of the Nahookos group enabled the Navajo astronomers to predict the seasons just by checking the position of Nahookos Bika in relation to Nahookos Bikq every night at the same time.  If the three stars that make up what we now call the “handle” of the “Big Dipper” are pointing up, then it was summer.  When the handle was pointing down, it was winter.  When Nahookos Bika was above Nahookos Bikq it was spring, and when it was below it was  autumn.

Nancy C. Maryboy and David Begay [Sharing the Skies] describe the constellation as follows:

“Nahookos Bika … is considered to be a male warrior, a leader and father, and sometimes a grandfather, who provides for his family.  He protects his family with weapons such as the bow and arrow.  He reflects the ideal characteristics of a provider and protector for his family, people, and home.



Nahookos Bika and Nahookos Bi'aad

“Nahookos Bi’aad … is considered to be a mother, and sometimes a grandmother, who exemplifies strength, motherhood, and regeneration.  She reflects the ideal characteristics of stability and peace in the home.  She also provides for her family through her female weapons of a grinding stone and stirring stick, used to fight off hunger and ensure good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle for her family.”

Nahookos Bi’aad is the constellation we call Casseopeia today.

Tribes that lived below the 34th parallel, saw a different phenomenon—the Big Dipper drops below the horizon as it revolves below the North Star.  This prompted an interesting story by a tribe living in Alabama.  Here is an excerpt from “The Celestial Canoe”, from the book “They Dance in the Sky” by Jean Guard Monroe and Ray A. Williamson:

“ Back in the days when stars were people, they could travel back and forth between the earth and sky.  Some of these sky people regularly came down to earth in a canoe.  While on earth, they played a ball game on a large, grassy field and then, when they were finished, they went back to their canoe, began singing, and rose to the sky.

“One time, as the sky people played on earth, a man was hiding nearby … when a beautiful sky woman ran after the ball, he leaped from his hiding place and grabbed her.  Frightened by the man, the other players jumped in their canoe, started singing, and returned to the sky.  The man took the beautiful woman home and married her.  In time, they had two children.

“After several years the mother became homesick for the sky and soon devised a plan to return.  She told her children to ask their father to go hunting and bring home meat to eat … and their father set off to hunt.

[but the first time they were unsuccessful]

“In the weeks that followed, the woman made another canoe, a small one, and put it in a safe hiding place.  Before long, her husband went out hunting again.  The woman got in one canoe and put her children in the little one.  She began singing and they all started to rise.  The father again ran back, but this time he managed to stop only the little canoe with his children.

“The children missed their mother very much and begged their father to let them follow her.  He gave in finally, and they all got in a canoe, sang, and began to rise just as she had.”

From the beginning of time, the beautiful patterns of stars in the sky have stirred man’s imagination.  I know how much I enjoy showing my children and grandchildren the wonders of the sky.  I’m sure it has been the same for fathers and grandfathers  over the ages.

 

 

By Courtney Miller
www.CourtneyMillerAuthor.com

Trade Routes: 9th Century

Part 3: Toltec center of Tula

 

Over the centuries, trade centers grew to prominence, flourished and then declined and were replaced by a new center.  By the 9th Century, the Mayan trade center in Tikal was starting to decline.   The Ancestral Puebloan trade center at Chaco Canyon and the Mississippian trade center at Cahokia were just becoming power centers and the Trade center for the Toltecs in Mexico was in its prime.

 

Panoramic view of the ruins of Teotihuacan

The city of Tula rose to prominence after the fall of Teotihuacan around 900 and reached its height

Teotihuacan

between 900 and 1150.  By all accounts, Teotihuacan was a magnificent center in its prime with a population possibly reaching 250,000.  It was probably the largest city in the world around 500 A.D.  Since it had no fortifications, it was a city very comfortable with its position in the world.  And the archaeology suggests that although it was influenced by many different cultures, it was never invaded by a foreign military.  It was, it appears, defeated by climate change—severe droughts starting around 535 A.D. and lasting for extended periods. This theory of ecological decline is supported by archaeological remains that show a rise in the percentage of juvenile skeletons with evidence of malnutrition during the 6th century.  When it finally fell, it appears that there was an internal uprising against the ruling class that resulted in the burning of their palaces.

Tula, ancient Toltec capital

At that point, the Toltec city of Tula picked up the slack and became the dominant center in Mexico.  Unlike Teotihuacan, it was well fortified and supported a powerful military.  So, in the 9th century, it would have been the regional trade center and in my hypothetical trade route, it would have been one of the main stops.

It never grew to the size of Teotihuaca.  At its height, the population was probably only 60,000 with another 20,000 in the surrounding area.   The factors lending  to  Tula becoming the dominant center in its region were its fertile farmland, obsidian mines, and location (along the trade route).

 
The population would have been made up of the ruling and elite class, craftsmen, merchants and a large number of farmers.  About half the population was involved in mining and crafting of obsidian and the working of travertine and ceramics.  They became so well-known for their craftsmanship that later the Aztec words for craftsmanship were synonymous with the Toltec and Tula.

But, agriculture also played a prominent roll in the economics of Tula.  They traded chili peppers, amaranth, squash and maguey along with corn and beans.  They also harvested a number of wild plants like mesquite beans and cactus fruit.  They even domesticated dogs and turkeys.  The skilled farmers used irrigation to produce bounteous crops of corn.

Tula didn’t last as long as many of the Mexican empires and likely suffered the same fate as Teotihuacan.  The leeched soil and drying climate led to the decline of their farming culture.  Like Teotihuacan, the ceremonial center was burned and looted around 1179 A.D.  At that point, the trade center probably moved to Tenochtitlan.

 

I think it is clear that commerce and trade played a major role in the prominence and decline of the major empires of Native America just as it does in the world today and did in the Old World.  The centers of power in the world seem to be constantly changing, but the principles of prosperity seem to be unchanged throughout history.