CHEROKEES OF NORTH CAROLINA — GILBERT 553 



syllabary. Two other distinguished nephews of Old Tassel were 

 Tolluntiskee, a principal chief, and his brother, John Jolly, also a 

 principal chief. 



The Wolf Clan, the line of Little Carpenter as we have seen, has 

 also given in more recent times the famous medicine woman, Ayasta, 

 mother of Will West Long, Climbing Bean Calhoun, Lawyer Calhoun, 

 Morgan Calhoun, and John Calhoun. Of these, Will West Long and 

 Morgan Calhoun were famous medicine men of the Wolf Clan at Big 

 Cove. The famous Swimmer, Mooney's formula informant, was of 

 the Wolf Clan and married a Blue Clan woman. His daughter Mary 

 had a son Uweti who had a son, Luke Swimmer, living in the reserva- 

 tion in 1932. 



Yonaguska or Drowning Bear was a peace chief and the best orator 

 of his time. He married twice, in both cases women of the Wolf Clan. 

 His son Julio married Ensi of the Deer Clan and had a son Faidil 

 Skiti or Waving Ears, who was a householder in Big Cove in 1932. 



From this and other examples, it may be seen that descent can be 

 traced back to the period of the middle nineteenth century and be- 

 yond. The continuity of descent afforded by the clan traditions of su- 

 perior achievement, especially in the cases of the Wolf and the Twister 

 Clans, doubtless accompanies the transmission of formulary lore 

 and other cultural items. Thus it is made to appear that a tribal 

 society such as the Eastern Cherokee is essentially made up of contend- 

 ing lineage groups (clans) each of which carries its own placement 

 status within the society. The personalities produced by the lineage 

 are but facets of the clan and the social standing of the clan. This is 

 because behavior in a primitive society is always conditioned by lineage 

 affiliations and by the prestige attaching thereto. 



CONCLUSION 



We have examined a number of facets of the Cherokee tribe oper- 

 ating in relation to its natural environment. In this brief paper the 

 idea has been stressed that culture is mainly an ecological adaptation 

 of a race to its environment and is designed to enable survival and 

 expansion of the biological heritage of that race. In other words the 

 culture is not regarded as operating, per se, in a vacuum. It is thought 

 of as inseparable from the natural ecology of the race or people under 

 consideration. The people are primary objects of consideration, their 

 culture secondary. 



The first principle of social continuity of the generations is illus- 

 trated by the clan or matrilineal lineage. Next, attention is called to 

 the principle of rhythms in nature and the commemoration of these 

 rhythms in the ancient monthly feasts. These in turn are shown to be 

 the likely antecedents to the modern Cherokee dances which commem- 



