Ill— STORIES AND STORY TELLERS 



Cherokee myths may be roughly classified as sacred myths, animal 

 st()ri(>s, local leo-ends. and historical traditions. To the first class 

 belong the g'enesis stories, dealing with the creation of the world, the 

 nature of the heavenly bodies and elemental forces, the origin of life 

 and death, the spirit Morld and the invisible beings, the ancient mon- 

 sters, and the hero-gods. It is almost certain that most of the myths 

 of this class are but disjointed fragments of an original complete gen- 

 esis and migration legend, which is now lost. With nearly every tribe 

 that has been studied we find such a sacred legend, preserved b}- the 

 priests of the tradition, who alone are privileged to recite and explain 

 it. and dealing with the origin and wanderings of the ])eople from the, 

 beginning of the world to the tinal settlement of the tril)e in its home 

 territory. Among the best examples of such genesis traditions are 

 those recorded in the Walam Olum of the Delawares and Matthews' 

 Navaho Origin Legend. Others may be found in Cusick's History 

 of the Six Nations, Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, and the 

 author's Jicarilla (renesis.' The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other plains 

 tribes are known to have similar genesis uwths. 



The former existence of such a national legend among the Cherokee 

 is confirmed by Haywood, writing in 18:^;'). who states on information 

 obtained from a principal man in the tribe that they had once a long 

 oi'ation, then nearly forgotten, which recounted the history of their 

 wanderings from the time when they had been first placed u\Hm tiie 

 earth by some superior power from above. Up to about the middle 

 of the last century this tradition was still recited at the annual Green- 

 corn dance." Unlike most Indians the Cherokee are not conservative, 

 and even before the Revolution had so far lost their primitive customs 

 from contact with the whites that Adair, in 1775, calls them a nest of 

 apostate hornets who for more than thirty years had been fast degen- 

 erating.'' Whatever it may have been, their national legend is now lost 

 forever. The secret orgiinizations that nmst have existed formerly 

 among the priesthood havt( also disappeared, and each man now works 

 independently according to his individual gifts and knowledge. 



The sacred myths were not for every one, but only those might hear 

 who observed the proper form and ceremony. When John Ax and 



' Amerionn Anthropologist, vol. xi.Jiily, 18»8. » Adair, Aim'rioiin Indians, p. 81,1775. 



2 See page 2U. 



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