Author's Book Praised by Native Americans

With the release of my new book, The Raven Mocker’s Legacy, this week’s article takes a look at the first two books of The Cherokee Chronicles series and their impact on the Native American community.

Author’s New Book praised by Natchez Chief

 K. T. “Hutke” Fields, Uvcenv Cunv Uvsel, Principal Chief of the Natchez Nation, has great praise for award-winning author Courtney Miller’s new book, “The Raven Mocker’s Legacy”, Book 2 of a 7-book series entitled “The Cherokee Chronicles”. The chronicles follows a fictional Cherokee family starting in mythical times and follows the generations through classical pre-contact, first contact, European colonization, and ends with the forced relocation of the Cherokee people in the 1800’s.

 

This is a preview of Author’s Books Praised by Native Americans. Read the full post (599 words, 12 images, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Cherokee Fables: Bird Tribes, Part 1

The sky is the flyway of the bird, whose freedom is to light and go at will … .  When evening shadows fall upon the earth and a lone jet cuts the puffy clouds with straight lines, it does not bother the birds.  They chirp and murmur night sounds and settle down to sleep.  We forget and think we are all there is. –Joyce Sequichie Hifler (A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume 2)

 

This morning (Monday, May 11, 2015) while I brushed the snow off our solar panels, my best friend Näkwïsï’ (Meadowlark) serenaded loudly, proudly, and eloquently from the flocked lawn.  He was not serenading for me but for a beautiful, quiet lady wearing a golden blouse adorned with a black necklace.  She pretended to ignore him knowing it would inspire him to sing bolder and more melodious; to be more inventive and creative; to be more alluring and beguiling.  She has the heart of a woman and he the heart of a man in courtship and it is beautiful. [listen to a pretty nakwisi

 

And so I am inspired to share the beautiful concept of the Cherokee bird tribes as told by a Cherokee Medicine man to James Mooney in 1887-90.

 

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: The Bird Tribes, Part 1. Read the full post (1519 words, 12 images, estimated 6:05 mins reading time)

A Cherokee Valentine

Saturday is Valentines Day, a national holiday in the United States, but what does it mean to Native Americans?

 

For the Cherokee in ancient times, this time of the year was known as “Kagali”, or the “Bony

Moon”.  It has been said that the reason for the name stems from there being less food available so the people were chewing on the bones.  It was also a time for remembering the deceased, celebrated with fasting, a dance, and ritual observance led by the Uku or “Didanawiskawi” (medicine person).

 

This is a preview of A Cherokee Valentine. Read the full post (451 words, 12 images, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

White Buffalo, Part 7: Eastern Herds

On some of the early drafts of my novel, “The First Raven Mocker”, witch is book 1 of the “Cherokee Chronicles” series,  I was criticized for references to the ancient Cherokee using buffalo blankets.  Although, I am sure the Cherokee could have traded for buffalo hides,  the Woodland buffalo did thrive east of the Mississippi in pre-Columbian times.  In 1540, De Soto sent two soldiers to scout for gold in Cherokee territory.  They brought back a dressed buffalo skin, the first ever obtained by a white man.

 

This is a preview of White Buffalo, Part 7: Eastern Herds. Read the full post (658 words, 2 images, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Great Sites, Part 6: Cherokee Crafts

This week’s article is on Cherokee crafts from the 18th century explained and demonstrated at Diligwa Village at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  This reconstruction of an authentic Cherokee village from 1710 is a great site to visit to get a feel for how the Cherokee lived back then.  Many thanks to Feather Smith and Betty for their contributions.

This is a preview of Great Sites, Part 6: Cherokee Crafts. Read the full post (671 words, 5 images, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

Great Sites, Part 4: Cherokee Housing 1710

Osiyo.  In this segment, we are going to learn about Cherokee housing, circa 1710, at Diligwa Village at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  The village features representative housing, public buildings, ball and game fields, and crafts and weapon demonstrations.  When we visited, our guide was Feather Smith [watch a short video with Feather Smith explaining the housing].

 

This is a preview of Great Sites, Part 4: Cherokee Housing 1710. Read the full post (723 words, 7 images, estimated 2:54 mins reading time)

Great Sites, Part 3: Cherokee Heritage Center

Nestled in a thick forest, the Cherokee Heritage Center showcases Cherokee culture and history.   A short, pleasant drive brings you to the shady parking lot with the Cherokee National Museum to the left and the Diligwa–1710  Cherokee Village–to the right.   Three brick columns rise up from a beautiful fountain in front of the Museum to remind us that this was once the site of the Cherokee Female Seminary.  Your first stop is inside the Museum which houses The Trail of Tears exhibit, Trail of Tears Art Show, Museum Store, and Archives.

 

This is a preview of Great Sites, Part 3: Cherokee Heritage Center. Read the full post (501 words, 4 images, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Great Sites, Part 1: Tahlequah

To get a good feel for Cherokee culture and history, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, is a great place to visit.  It is located in the heart of “Green Country” and “Lake Country” in northeastern Oklahoma and is the capital of the Cherokee Nation and the Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee.  There are a number of historical museums and the Cherokee Heritage Center where a visitor can learn about the historical and pre-historical Cherokee.

We began our tour in downtown Tahlequah with the Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum built in 1844.  It is the oldest government building still standing in Oklahoma.  The museum features in addition to exhibits on the Cherokee judicial system and the Cherokee language, exhibits on the first Cherokee newspapers–The Cherokee Phoenix and the Cherokee Advocate.

This is a preview of Great Sites, Part 1: Tahlequah. Read the full post (801 words, 5 images, estimated 3:12 mins reading time)

Cherokee Fables: What Stars are Like

Starry Night, van Gogh

This week the sky provided us with wondrous things to observe.  Sunday was this year’s “Supermoon” which is the first full moon when the moon is at its closest point to earth.  It was accompanied by the Perseid Meteor Shower which occurs every year around this time when the earth’s path crosses the debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle.

 

Man has always been intrigued by the sky and its mysteries and has tried to explain the phenomena in the sky with careful observation and reasoned hypotheses.  This week I would like continue the series on Cherokee Fables with the Cherokee story “What the Stars are Like” as recorded by James Mooney in the late 1800’s . . .

 

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: What the Stars are Like. Read the full post (431 words, 5 images, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Cherokee Fables: The Moon and The Thunders

The Sun was a young woman and lived in the East, while her brother, the Moon. lived in the West. The girl had a lover who used to come every month in the dark of the moon to court her. He would come at night, and leave before daylight, and although she talked with him she could not see his face in the dark, and he would not tell her his name, until she was wondering all the time who it could be. At last she hit upon a plan to find out, so the next time he came, as they were sitting together in the dark of the âsi, she slyly dipped her hand into the cinders and ashes of the fireplace and rubbed it over his face, saying, “Your face is cold; you must have suffered from the wind,” and pretending to be very sorry for him, but he did not know that she had ashes on her hand. After a while he left her and went away again.

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: The Moon And The Thunders. Read the full post (683 words, 5 images, estimated 2:44 mins reading time)

Cherokee Fables: The Journey to the Sunrise

A long time ago several young men made up their minds to find the place where the Sun lives and see what the Sun is like. They got ready their bows and arrows, their parched corn and extra moccasins, and started out toward the east. At first they met tribes they knew, then they came to tribes they had only heard about, and at last to others of which they had never heard.

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: The Journey To The Sunrise. Read the full post (405 words, 5 images, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

“Cherokee Fables: Origin of Disease and Medicine”

Cherokee Hunter by Mails

In the old days the beasts, birds, fishes, insects, and plants could all talk, and they and the people lived together in peace and friendship. But as time went on the people increased so rapidly that their settlements spread over the whole earth, and the poor animals found themselves beginning to be cramped for room. This was bad enough, but to make it worse Man invented bows, knives, blowguns, spears, and hooks, and began to slaughter the larger animals, birds, and fishes for their flesh or their skins, while the smaller creatures, such as the frogs and worms, were crushed and trodden upon without thought, out of pure carelessness or contempt. So the animals resolved to consult upon measures for their common safety.

This is a preview of Cherokee Fables: Origin of Disease and Medicine. Read the full post (1327 words, 6 images, estimated 5:18 mins reading time)

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)

Native American Fables: The Origin of Strawberries

When James Mooney, who worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology in the late 1800’s, lived with the Cherokee, he recorded many of their myths and legends. I love the story of the origin of strawberries because it presents the Cherokee version of Adam and Eve and gives us insight into the Cherokee’s thoughts on the power of love.

This is a preview of Native American Fables: The Origin of Strawberries. Read the full post (712 words, 5 images, estimated 2:51 mins reading time)

Unique Beings Being Unique: Cherokee vs Algonquin

 Cultures, Native American Antiquity  No Responses »

Apr242014

 

I am constantly struck by the images evoked by the term “Native American”. I find that the English language has a way of sorting and categorizing that often combines very different entities. For instance, the word” love”, in English, refers to both the concept of agape and eros as if they are the same thing. In one case, we are referring to a very unselfish affection, whereas the other is completely selfish.

I think the term “Native American” can be just as contradictory. Certainly, the Native Americans

Cherokee house

This is a preview of Unique Beings Being Unique: Cherokee vs Algonquin. Read the full post (668 words, 6 images, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

Cherokee Ball Play Dance

Nachez Powwow–picture from website

 

This past weekend (March 29 and 30), there was a powwow in Nachez, Mississippi.  Native American powwows are very colorful and the dances are festive and interesting.  Dancing and singing has always been a major part of Native American life.   When James Mooney lived with the Cherokee in the 1830’s, he witnessed and wrote about the Cherokee Ball Play Dance.  Here are some of Mooney’s observations:

 

“In 1834, before the removal of the Cherokee to the west, a great game was played near the present site of Jasper, Georgia, between the settlements of Hickory Log and Coosawattee, in which there were eighteen players on a side, and the chiefs of the rival settlements wagered $1,000 apiece on the result.

 

This is a preview of Cherokee Ball Play Dance. Read the full post (1217 words, 6 images, estimated 4:52 mins reading time)

 

--Courtney Miller

 

Author of The First Raven Mocker

Book 1 of the Cherokee Chronicles

Finalist, Beverly Hills Book Awards

Cherokee Misconceptions, Part 10: Cherokee had their own constitution

Cherokee Council House, 1827

              
We, the Representatives of the people of the Cherokee Nation, in Convention assembled, in order to establish justice, ensure tranquility, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty; acknowledging with humility and gratitude the goodness of the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, in offering us an opportunity so favorable to the design, and imploring His aid and direction in its accomplishment, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Government of the Cherokee Nation.

This is a preview of Cherokee Misconceptions, Part 10: Cherokee had their own constitution. Read the full post (499 words, 4 images, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

 

Courtney Miller

Cherokee Misconceptions, Part 9: The Cherokee had Leprechauns?

When the Irish came over to America, I’m sure they were surprised to learn that Native Americans had a version of the leprechaun in their lore.  And there are many similarities.

 

Despite colonial biases, the Cherokee did not copy the Irish Leprechaun.  The Cherokee Yunwi Tsunsdi (Little People) was part of ancient legend and myth.  As Will Rogers might have said, “The Little People didn’t come over with the colonists, they met the boat.”

These interesting “Little People” figure prominently in many old Cherokee stories, including origin stories.  They were probably introduced to non-native Americans by James Mooney in his monumental work “Myths of the Cherokee” published in 1900.  The Cherokee medicine man, Swimmer, related to him the following:

Read the full article...

Courtney Miller

Cherokee Misconceptions, Part 8: Feathered Headdresses

Pow-wow

When we think of Native American clothing, we often picture colorful, feathered costumes.  Although some Cherokee may have worn feathered headdresses to show off for tourists, their ancestors did not.  The spectacularly colored feathered costumes seen at Pow-wow’s and Native American festivals or dances are based on ceremonial costumes worn by the Plains Indians that were made popular in the early Wild West shows and, of course, in Hollywood movies.

 

In ancient times, Cherokee men might pull their hair through a short, hollow deer  bone and attach beads or a feather or two to the bone. 

 

In his wonderful book, “The Cherokee People”, Thomas E. Mails described the “ordinary Cherokee men”:

Winter Dress [TE Mails]

“… In winter, it was common for men to wear either an otter-skin headband or an oter-skin cap that was slightly conical in shape and had a front appendage of white opossum hair dyed red.  The brim was cut almost round and was decorated with loops or disks made of lead.

 

“… [they] wore belted skin robes that were fashioned from the tanned hides of bear, deer, otter, beaver, and mountain lion, and winter moccasins made of beaver skins.  Other male garments consisted of long-sleeved, hip-length hide shirts; tubular-style, fringed hide leggings that had no seat to connect them and were secured to the belt by means of straps; and breeches-like hide breechclouts.  The breechclout consisted of two formfitted aprons, one in front and one behind, that were tied above the hips to the same narrow buck-skin belt that held up the leggings, and which extended halfway down to the knees.  The aprons were tied together at the man’s sides, and the middle of each apron was drawn up between the legs until the two ends could be tied together with thongs.  When necessary, the thongs were untied for hygienic purposes.  The breechclouts were often dyed, and in the case of the war leaders, were a vivid red.  A colorful, broad–woven belt with tasseled yarn ties, made by female finger weavers, was worn over the breechclout, and from this belt at the right side was hung the knife and sheath and at the front by means of thongs, a midsized, painted buckskin pouch that was used to carry miscellaneous items such as smoking tobacco, pipes, flint, bullets, patches, mending supplies, glue sticks.”

 

John Howard Payne, who travelled among the Cherokee in the mid-1800’s learned that “in more ancient times, Cherokee men wore beards that seldom exceeded six inches in length.  Some men let their beards fall loose, but others plaited them, with one braid hanging from each side of the mouth and one from the chin.  The mustache was either pulled out or trimmed to where it did not hang over the mouth.”

Women's dress [TE Mails]

 

Mails described the women’s dress:

“Women wore short, sleeveless, close-fitting deerskin dresses and used fishbone needles to sew them together with deer sinew.  The dresses were belted at the waist with broad, woven belts and fastened at the bosom with hasps or broaches made of bone.  There was also a hide handkerchief that was worn around the neck and tucked down into the bosom.  A bell was attached to the handkerchief.  Under the dress was a petticoat that was woven or knitted from wild hemp.  This extended down to the knees and had a long fringe tha reached the ankles.  Women of status were permitted to weave colorful beads and feathers into the fringe and into the body of the dress itself.  Women wore no leggings but had deerskin moccasins that were made like half boots, came up to the knee, and had small bells attached at the ankles.  These bells worn by the women tinkled as they walked and filled the air with soft music.”

 

Cherokee London delegation

 

A lot changed after European colonization.  After a Cherokee delegation sent to Europe was encouraged to cover their tattooed heads with muslim-like turbins, it became a hit with Cherokee men back home.  But the feathered headdress of the Plains Indians never caught on with the Cherokee.

by Courtney Miller
author of "The First Raven Mocker"

Cherokee Misconceptions, Part 6: Cherokee Freedmen

It will surprise many to know that slavery has always been a part of the Cherokee culture.  Long before Europeans came over, anyone captured in war was enslaved at least temporarily.  Sometimes the Blessed Women would have them sent home or released.  Sometimes the slaves were adopted into the tribe.  But for many, they were tied up outside the house with the dogs and forced to perform menial work for the family.

Rounding up runaway Cherokee slaves

After the colonies were established, these slaves were sometimes traded for food and goods.  Then the English began capturing Native Americans for the English plantations in the Caribbean.  Between 1670 and 1715 it is estimated that between 24,000 and 51,000 were sold in the British Slave markets.

At this point, Cherokee also purchased slaves including African slaves.   From the 1700’s through the mid 1800’s the Cherokee and the other “Civilized Tribes” purchased African slaves to help on their plantations.  By 1835, 7% of Cherokee families owned slaves.  When the Cherokee and the other Civilized Tribes were forced to relocate to Oklahoma, slaves accompanied their Native American owners on the Trail of Tears.

Cherokee Confederate Reunion 1903

In the American Civil War, the Five Civilized Tribes aligned with the Confederacy.  But, after his capture and parole, the Cherokee Chief John Ross sided with the Union and rejected the Confederate Treaty.  This led to a split amongst the Cherokee and two governments were formed.  The pro-Union government passed two emancipation acts in February, 1863 that established all slaves as “Freedmen.”

After the Civil War, the two factions continued and each tried to negotiate with the United States.   The Pro-Union faction was ultimately selected to represent all of the Cherokee and signed a reconstruction treaty that granted Cherokee citizenship to the Freedmen and their descendants.  The other Civilized tribes also signed treaties and only the Choctaw refused to include Freedmen as citizens of their tribe.

The Cherokee constitution was revised later that year to give Freedmen the option to return to Oklahoma and become Cherokee citizens or to leave and become United States citizens.   Differences of opinion continued to complicate the role of the Freedmen for the years following, including whether the Freedmen shared in Cherokee assets and property rights.

In 1887, the U. S. Congress passed the “Dawes Act” to promote the “assimilation of Native Americans by extinguishing tribal government.”  As a part of the act, the “Dawes Commission” required registration of the American Indians of each tribe in the Indian Territory under the categories: Indians by blood, intermarried whites, and Freedmen.  Even though some Freedmen had Cherokee parents or Cherokee blood, the commissioners usually listed them on the Freedman’s role.

In 1970, the former Five Civilized Tribes’ right to vote for tribal leaders was restored by Congress in the “Principal Chiefs Act.”  Freedmen participated in the election.   A new constitution was drafted in 1975 and it defined citizens as those proven by reference to the final Dawes Commission rolls. 

In 1983, Principal Chief Ross O. Swimmer issued an executive order stating that Cherokee citizens must have a “Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood” in order to vote.  The CDIB cards were issued based upon the Dawes Roles for “Indians by blood” category only.  This blocked Freedmen from voting.

On March 7, 2006, the Cherokee Nation Judicial Appeals Tribunal ruled in favor of Lucy Allen, a Freedmen descendant, that acts barring Freedmen descendants from tribal membership were unconstitutional giving back citizenship to Freedmen descendants.

Chad "Corntassel" Smith

But later that year, Principal Chief Chad “Corntassel” Smith called for a constitutional convention to amend the constitution to deny citizenship to the Cherokee Freedmen descendants.  The Tribal Council voted 13-2 in favor of the amendment and it went before the citizens for ratification.  In spite of appeals by the Freedmen descendants, the amendment passed once again denying citizenship to Freedmen descendants.  In 2011, after numerous court battles, Cherokee District Court ruled the 2007 amendment void by law because it conflicted with the Treaty of 1866 that guaranteed Freedmen rights as citizens, but this ruling was reversed by the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court.

 

And on it goes.   As of today, the Freedmen descendants are not recognized as citizens of the Cherokee Nation.  There are, of course, continuing lawsuits pending.

 

 

-- Courtney Miller

Author of "The First Raven Mocker"
Book One of the Cherokee Chronicles

Available at bookstores, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com