298 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



While both of the informants express doubts about the importance of 

 one or the other, neither is willing to disavow completely his belief. 

 Credulity in respect to signs is not confined to older Cherokee Con- 

 servatives. A young wife lost her brother during my stay in Cherokee. 

 After the funeral I stopped in to extend my sympathies. She said, 

 "You know Roy French and Jim Driver?" She continued: 



Jim was coming down to get Roy the morning George died. He saw a ball of 

 fire rolling down the hill, and it went to pieces right by the house. He told Roy 

 about it and said it meant bad news . . . that somebody was going to die and 

 George did die. Johnny [her husband] and I were talking the other night. We 

 wondered why White people didn't hear strange things and see things like 

 Indians do. Of course, some of the old White people who live back in the hills do, 

 but most White people don't. 



Mary related other stories of strange happenings in her mother's 

 house after George's death. She concluded by saying that she would 

 not under any circumstances stay up there now by herself. 



Imitative magic has its adherents among the most traditional 

 people. Faith in omens and witches also finds greatest expression 

 among them. We have illustrated through the selected units of 

 behavior that Thomas' portrayal of the dominant values of the Con- 

 servative Cherokee is accurate. He states further that associated 

 with the presence of dominant values is a concept of self which is 

 peculiarly their own. I shall turn to this postulate to complete the 

 description of the Conservatives. 



CONCEPT OF SELF 



The evidence (which, to be sure, is confined to verbalizations and 

 overt behavior rather than any depth analysis) indicates that the 

 Conservatives are sure of their identity as Indians. Thomas points 

 to this awareness as a signal characteristic of Conservatives. In their 

 conception of themselves, they are a separate order of people and 

 largely unconcerned about others' opinions of them (cf . pp. 245-246) . 

 Although, in conversation. Conservatives seldom make this concept as 

 explicit as Thomas has, they do make remarks which imply that they 

 consider themselves to be a different order of people from the rest of 

 the tribe, particularly those who are obviously genetically mixed. 

 "I'm a fullblood," an elderly man said; "There ain't many Indians 

 left." Another informant, Aggie, said about her obviously mixed 

 great-grandchild, "Her Daddy is a White man. He brought my 

 granddaughter and the baby home 2 years ago, and said he was going 

 to hunt a job. I guess he's still huntin'. You'd think if he didn't 

 want to stay with an Indian, he wouldn't have married one. I 

 always say I'm a fullblood; I'm not because John Ross, who was part 

 Scotch, was my Daddy's Daddy." 



