Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-11-18
ABOUT THE CHER
OKEEs In NORTH CAROLINA.


western North Carolina, isolated among
the widest and toughest hills of the
Alleghenies, are l 200 pure bred Cher
okees on reservation Of 73 900 acres"
said James Mooney, chronological ex-
pert. 1.-The missionaries claim that
most of them are Christians, but e1-
tended observation has convinced me
that very few of them do anything
more than profess the white mans re-
igion. They like to gather at meet
ing and crafty their musical instinct
by singing hymns, but that is usually
as far as their conversion carries
them. At heart, in nearly all cases,
they remain true to their ancient faith.
The final test. however, is found in the
sick Indian. When In good health, he
may be the most promising convert i'm
aginable, but the moment he feels in
disposed he calls in the native medicine
men with their charms and incanta-
tions. The latter address formule in
the ancient ritual language, among
other things, to various animals"
"And why to Animsls2" he was
asked.
10 animals in sickness always. The
Cherokee religion, you must under
stand, is worship Of nature and all
her manifestations-birds, beasts, fish,
water, the sun and moon, the noun
tains, storms, thunder and lightning.
and SO on indefinitely. If the patient
has a toothsche, for instance, the med
icine man tells him that it is worm
in the tooth, and he prsys: 20 good
squirrel, do come and take out the
worm from this tooth and carry it
and put 1t inside of an old dead log
a certain small fish is supposed to
cause a great deal of sickness. You
see, the fish are angry at being caught
and eaten, and their ghosts often come
back 10 torture the people who de-
voured them, with various complaints.
When person is thus attacked by a
fish ghost, = prayer is addressed TO the
blue cat, who is king Of all the fishes,
TO come and drive out the other fish.
If the case Is bad the red man, the
blue man, the white man and the black
man are invoked"
"'Wster and fire are worshipped,
too?'
with great awe. Water is prayed
10 under the name of the long man,
who has his head in the mountains and
his foot in the ocean. To the Chero-
KEGS the river is live person. sOh
make me like you,' they say, 'who are
50 big and SO strong that you carry
tnna
power can resist yon.' And fire is
called the ancient white, because it is
very old, the dead ashes are white and
the flame is white. We don't call
flame white, but they do, their differ
of colOrs being less distinct
than ours. The red-hot Goals are the
ancient red. Lightning and thunder
together they call the great red men.
He is red, you see, because he is pow
erful, red being the color signitiying
power. The sun is called the measur-
ar, because it measures time. When |
he is in love, the Cherokee prays to |
beautiful birds, TO the river, to the |
sun, and to the moon. /
'.NIost frequently he addresses the |
SellOwhammer beseeching it to make |
him handsome and attractive to the |
women. Also, he prsys to the red |
'pider-red being symbolic of success
to wind its meshes around the heart |
IF his loved one. OF the prayer form
lle used in supplicsting all these OBJ
ects and many more l have brought
pack with me from North Carolina a
7ery complete collection. They are
III wonderfully poetical. Ver- pref
lily imaginative is the prayer addressed
o an approaching storm that threatens
he corn crop, which supplies their
taple food. The priest stands at the
,orner of the corn-patch with one
land uplifted as if to warn the storm
way"
"Do they worship the mountains?"
eyes; and all the plants that grow
IN them. For instance, they pray to
he ginseng, which has q forked root
rudely resembling the shape of q
uman being. They call it the very
-reat man, and when they find one of
he plants they repeat formula taught
hem by the priests, for 8 considera-
ion, saying: % mountain, l have
ONE to take small piece from your
ide.' Then the finder digs the plant
p and puts glass head into the hole,
D pay the mountain for the plant.
he seventh plant found has an espe-
ial medicinal value, and the first four
lants discovered must not be touched,
lough after others have been gath
red the searcher may 60 back and
ollect those four"
"How do these people live2"
"In the simplest log cabins, many of
hem without windows or floors. The
eople are often very cold in winter,
ut they don't seem to mind it. They j
re purely agricultural and corn bread [
nd salt pork chiefly compose their
let. Such game as they get-rabbits,
luirrels, birds and other small fry ,
shot with blowguns made of hollow
shpole cane with the joints bored out. {
II the use of this weapon they are so {
Spert that they can bring down a small {
ird from the top of . tall tree with
ne of the light reed arrows feathered [
nth thistle-down which they employ &
)r projectiles. The canes they need
Or making the blowguns are obtained s
rom brakes in South Carolina mostly, {
DO to 200 miles away. 9
To illustrate the value set by Cher
kee upon his time, it occurs to me to
Iention that on one occasion when I '
anted blow-gun, possibly worth IS I
snts. asked one of the Indians to '
ii me ono. He said he had none to !
,are, but would go over TO South :
arolina-perhaps three-weeks jour- .
by there and back-snd get reed for !
e purpose. The fish, whose ghosts
rture them so much, they catch in
eat numbers by traps in the stream;
e finny prey is led into a sort of a
'und and dipped out with baskets or q
'eared. The men handle the spears v
I'd the women the baskets. When b