We are often told that the Cherokee man never does woman’s work. But this is not always true. One story tells how the man learned from the fish to do the work of the home.

A man had been hunting for many days and when he returned home, he found his family very, very ill. They were so ill his wife could not cook and she could not tell him what to do for her. He was afraid that his wife and two children would die if he didn’t find out what to do for them. He knew his wife prepared herbs and plants when they were sick and he knew a little about the cooking. So, he took some of the meat he had brought from the hunt and made a simple stew in the cooking pot.  He offered a gourd full to his wife and children.

His wife was too sick to eat the stew and the children became sicker. He was very worried. He had no close neighbors and he thought he had very little time before something must be done.

That night he could not sleep, so early in the dark morning he went out to the river bank to think and worry. “What can I do?  What does she do for us? He worried and thought. Down the river he heard a splash and he saw some bugs flying around. He knew that meant there was fish in the water. Up the stream, he saw a mother fish and some babies. Then he saw the father fish bringing a bug for their breakfast. He watched the fish parents taking care taking care of the babies. It was a calm and pretty little scene.

He looked down at the hands he had that the fish didn’t have and he looked at the legs that he had that the fish did not have. He remembered that the Great Creator had given him a mind. So he said to himself, “get up and do something.”

He thought very hard and tried to remember the medicine plants. He stepped on a plant and recognized the smell as one his wife had used in their stew when someone felt bad. He took the plant and put a bit of it in the water with the meat. He fed the broth to his wife and children and before night, they felt better. Then his wife could tell him more about what could be used for medicine.

The Cherokee know that the water and land animals have much to teach people about how to provide for their families.

Long ago there was only one man and one woman on the earth. They were placed here to take care of all the animals and plants. Everything was perfect. They loved each other very much. They were called FirstMan and FirstWoman.

One day, and no one knows exactly why, they began to argue. The arguments became louder and more intense. Each one said very hurtful things to the other. Finally FirstWoman left the dwelling. She insisted she did not ever want to see FirstMan again, and would never return to their dwelling. FirstMan agreed. He too did not want to remain where there was so much animosity.

As night fell, FirstMan realized that he didn’t want to be separated from FirstWoman. He didn’t feel right to be alone. FirstMan began to desperately miss FirstWoman. At every sound outside the silent dwelling, he rushed to the door hoping to see she had returned. But it was never her.

At first light he set out in the direction she had gone hoping to catch up with her. After one full day, he finally saw her in the distance. She also saw him, and began to pace him, so he could get no closer. He sped up, and so did she. This continued for two days. Desperate, FirstMan asked the Creator to help him. “Are you sure you want this woman?” asked the Creator. “Oh, yes, for this woman walks in my very soul”, answered FirstMan.

Seeing FirstMan’s sincerity, the Creator placed flowers in the path of FirstWoman to slow her down. The flowers were beautiful, but FirstWoman could see none of them through her tears. She kept pacing FirstMan so he could not catch up with her. The Creator set other, more beautiful flowers in her path…wild flowers of incredible beauty that should have gotten her attention. These could not attract her because of her tears. The Creator put bushes in her path with no effect, and wonderful shrubs. FirstWoman kept pacing FirstMan. FirstMan began to lose ground with FirstWoman and he felt disheartened.

Finally the Creator put out berry bushes in front of FirstWoman. These included service berries, blackberries, cherries, saskatoon berries, gooseberries. FirstWoman stopped periodically to taste the fruit, but moved on and now began outpacing FirstMan. He began to lose sight of her completely.

Finally the Creator set out the Strawberry plant to slow down FirstWoman. The Creator set it out in all it’s evolution – white, green and red. She eventually stopped to taste the sweet red berry. However, wherever FirstWoman stepped on the earth, the Creator set a strawberry plant. In this manner, FirstMan was able to track her. As the strawberries became more lush and sweet, FirstWoman stayed longer to taste the fruit. This is how FirstMan was eventually able to catch up with her.

They shared this wonderful fruit while soothing the ugly words they had said to each other. The words became forgotten and they traveled home together in the love they originally shared.

To this day some Cherokee homes keep strawberries in some form. Maybe just in the form of jams or jellies, or in the form of plants in the gardens. In some older homes – log homes – they are planted between the logs in keeping with the tradition. But they remind us in the end to slow down our arguments. Most are never important enough for us to leave our homes nor our chosen FirstMates.

http://www.native-american-online.org/license.htm#Firstman%20and%20Firstwoman

There are a few stories concerning the first contact of the Cherokee with whites and negroes. They are very modern and have little value as myths, but throw some light upon the Indian estimate of the different races.

One story relates how the first whites came from the east and tried to enter into friendly relations, but the Indians would have nothing to do with them for a long time. At last the whites left a jug of whisky and a dipper near a spring frequented by the Indians. The Indians came along, tasted the liquor, which they had never known before, and liked it so well that they ended by all getting comfortably drunk. While they were in this happy frame of mind some white men came up, and this time the Indians shook hands with them and they have been friends after a fashion ever since. This may possibly be a Cherokee adaptation of the story of Hudson’s first landing on the island of Manhattan.

At the creation an ulûñsû’tï was given to the white man, and a piece of silver to the Indian. But the white man despised the stone and threw it away, while the Indian did the same with the silver. In going about the white man afterward found the silver piece and put it into his pocket and has prized it ever since. The Indian, in like manner, found the ulûñsû’tï where the white man had thrown it. He picked it up and has kept it since as his talisman, as money is the talismanic power of the white man. This story is quite general and is probably older than others of its class.

When Sequoya, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, was trying to introduce it among his people, about 1822, some of them opposed it upon the ground that Indians had no business with reading. They said that when the Indian and the white man were created, the Indian, being the elder, was given a book, while the white man received a bow and arrows. Each was instructed to take good care of his gift and make the best use of it, but the Indian was so neglectful of his book that the white man soon stole it from him, leaving the bow in its place, so that books and reading now belong of right to the white man, while the Indian ought to be satisfied to hunt for a living.–Cherokee Advocate, October 26, 1844.

The negro made the first locomotive for a toy and put it on a wooden track and was having great fun with it when a white man came along, watched until he saw how to run it, and then killed the negro and took the locomotive for himself. This, also, although plainly of very recent origin, was heard from several informants.

Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. From the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1897-98, Part I. [1900] and is now in the public domain.

The first recorded European contact with the Cherokee was Hernando De Soto’s expedition of 1540. Records of the expedition refer to the tribe as “Chalaque”, probably from the Mobilian trade language (a corrupted Choctaw jargon used by the tribes of the Southeast), probably meaning “cave people”. This word in the southern Cherokee dialect was pronounced “Tsa-la-gi” but in the eastern area pronounced “Tsa-ra-gi”, from which the name “Cherokee” is derived. The Cherokee called themselves “Ani-Yun-wiya”, the principal people. The Cherokee also referred to themselves as “Ani-Kituhwagi”, the people of Kituhwa — an ancient town which was probably the original nucleus of the tribe.

In April of 1540, De Soto crossed through the Cherokee country looking for gold. The Spanish explorers found the first Cherokee village they encountered practically deserted. The Cherokee were aware of the outrageous conduct of the Spaniards toward neighboring tribes so they abandoned their towns before the arrival of the expedition, leaving behind only those who could not travel. In need of food and receiving no help from the Cherokee, the expedition quickly moved on to the north.

Turning to the west, across the Blue Ridge, De Soto again entered the Cherokee country and received a much warmer welcome. The Cherokee were reportedly very hospitable and provided the travelers with much needed food — corn, wild turkey, and other small game.

De Soto moved on to the Muscogee, Creek, country but sent two soldiers back into the Cherokee country to look for reported copper and gold mines. One report states that they found mines of a fine species of copper with indications of gold and silver but De Soto chose not to return to search for the mines.

The two soldiers were given a dressed buffalo skin, the first obtained by white men, and described it as “an ox hide as thin as a calf’s skin, and the hair like a soft wool between the coarse and fine wool of sheep.” It should be noted that buffalo (actually the correct name is “bison”) did not just roam the “Great Plains” but could be found all the way to the Atlantic Coast.

The next reported contact with Europeans came in the fall of 1566. The Spanish had established Fort San Felipe near present Port Royal, SC and a small expedition was sent into the interior of the region. Joined the following summer by another detachment of troops, the combined force returned to their fort. Most reports were that they received a friendly reception everywhere along the their route.

The Spanish carried on mining and smelting of gold and other metals within the Cherokee country in the mid to late 1600’s. Although these operations were kept secret by the Spanish, they were well known in the Spanish settlements of Santa Elena and Saint Augustine.

http://cherokeehistory.com/firstcon.html

He-e! Ani’-Tsa’guhi, Ani’-Tsa’guhi, akwandu’li e’lanti’ ginun’ti,

Ani’-Tsa’guhi, Ani’-Tsa’guhi, akwandu’li e’lanti’ ginun’ti–Yu! He-e! The Ani’-Tsa’guhi, the Ani’-Tsa’guhi, I want to lay them low on the ground,

The Ani’-Tsa’guhi, the Ani’-Tsa’guhi, I want to lay them low on the ground,–Yû!

The bear hunter starts out each morning fasting and does not eat until near evening. He sings this song as he leaves camp, and again the next morning, but never twice the same day.

Myths Of The Cherokee, By James Mooney, From Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 1897-98, Part I. [1900]