No.™!]^' ^^^' EASTERN CHEROKEE GROUPS — KUPFERER 295 



group and the White adolescent group is statistically significant. 

 The probability of chance variation is much less than 0.05. 



In a further refinement, the older group of Indian respondents was 

 reclassified into two tentative groups : Conservative Indians and others 

 (including Generalized Indians and Rural Whites). This reclassifi- 

 cation resulted in findings which suggest that among the Conservative 

 adolescents, the retention of the behef is almost universal. The 

 proportion of the Conservative cases which retains the belief is, by 

 inspection, significantly different from the proportion of other Chero- 

 kee adolescents which retains the belief. 



The faith persists in different forms into adult life. I once made 

 a comment to two women on the amount of money a certain entre- 

 preneur must be making. One of them said, "It isn't good to be 

 rich; you might die." The rationale for this statement touches on 

 the Conservative value of generosity. In the eyes of the Conserva- 

 tive, anyone who has money must be stingy, and stinginess is an 

 unseemly trait to be avoided. 



The behef is also reflected in statements made about the cause of 

 illness. Sickness is often attributed to "being bad" or "not doing 

 right." Other vicissitudes are also interpreted as being a result of 

 not doing right. Alfred was a heavy drinker. His wife lost a baby 

 right after its birth. "They were so broken up over losing that baby 

 that Alfred quit drinking. He even got up in church and said that 

 he'd quit." 



The notion of automatic consequences is present in many of the 

 Cherokee myths. For example, there is a story of a boy who, con- 

 trary to his father's instructions, went to the river to play. After 

 he had joined some other boys in a canoe, it began to rock and tipped 

 the disobedient boy into the water. 



An Indian doctor put it most explicitly, "In the old days, the people 

 used to know the rules, used to know what to do. Now some of the 

 young people don't care; they don't do right. They going to be 

 sorry; they going to see they are wrong." 



Imitative magic and signs and omens. — Thomas (MS. a, p. 22) 

 states that the Conservative Cherokee still sees an ordered universe 

 much as his ancestors did. Evidence for the persistence of this 

 world view,^^ can be seen in the beliefs revealing simple cause and 

 effect, and in the credence which is placed in omens. These two 

 phenomena are part of the way in which the Cherokee sees a har- 

 monious ordering of his world. Several of these beliefs have been 



2' For a discussion of world views and their entrenchment In present-day Indian tribal culture see Thomp- 

 son, 1948. 



