554 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



orate the rhythmic recurrence of needs just as did the ancient monthly 

 feasts. 



Then, turning to the Cherokee prayers or sacred formulas, which 

 are in some cases hundreds of years old, it was found that they lend 

 force to social continuity through their conservation and commemora- 

 tion of traditional values, both orally and in writing. The prayers 

 are in turn buttressed by the myths or stories that illustrate the think- 

 ing of the ancestors and explain the present in terms of the past. 



The town or community life of the Cherokees shows its roots in the 

 clan lineage system and its relation to the civil and military needs of a 

 primitive people. Out of this lineal emphasis of the community life 

 emerges a view of the Cherokee personality, a product of lineage and 

 social status, but permissive nonetheless of special individual achieve- 

 ment. 



The final conclusion is that Cherokee life today is a going concern 

 and gives no evidence of dying out or disappearing through absorp- 

 tion within the non-Indian society that surrounds it. Commemora- 

 tion and innovation are the two forces still constituting the cycle of 

 life as far as the stream of Cherokee existence is concerned. 



REFERENCES 

 Barton, Benjamin S. 



1798. New views on the origin of the tribes and nations of America. 

 Philadelphia. 

 Bboom, Leonard, and Speck, F. G. 



1951. Cherokee dance and drama. Berkeley, Calif. 

 Donaldson, Thomas. 



1892. The eastern band of Cherokees of North Carolina. Extra Census 

 Bull., 11th U. S. Census. 

 Gilbert, William H., Jr. 



1943. The Eastern Cherokees. Anthrop. Pap. No. 23, Bur. Ainer. Ethnol. 

 Bull. 133, pp. 169-413. 

 Haywood, John. 



1823. Natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee. Nashville. 

 Knight, John Alden. 



1942. Moon up and moon down. New York. 

 Lewis, T. M. N., and Knebero, Madeline. 



1954. Oconaluftee Indian village, an interpretation of a Cherokee com- 

 munity of 1750. Cherokee Historical Association, Inc. 

 Mooney, James. 



1891. Sacred formulas of the Cherokees. 7th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 



1885-86, pp. 301-397. 

 1900. Myths of the Cherokee. 19th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1897-98, 

 pt. 1, pp. 3-540. 

 Olbrechts, Frans M., and Mooney, James. 



1932. The Swimmer manuscript. Cherokee sacred formulas and medicinal 

 prescriptions. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 99, 319 pp. 

 Snyder, L. H. 



1926. Human blood groups; their origin and social significance. Amer. 

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