THE FIRST FIRE
Long ago it was cold. The Thunders sent down lightning and set fire to a hollow sycamore stump on an island. The Animals knew it was on fire because they could see the smoke coming out of the stump.
All of the Animals wanted to go get the fire. They held a great council and it was finally decided which Animal would go get the fire. The Raven was selected. He flew over the water and landed on the top of the stump. The heat was so great that it scorched all of his feathers black. He was scared, and he returned without the fire.
The Hoot Owl went next. He landed on the stump and, while he was looking down into the stump, a blast of hot air came up and nearly burned out his eyes. He rubbed and rubbed his eyes until they turned red. They are still red to this day.
The Screech Owl and the Horned Owl went next. They flew over and landed on the stump. They were nearly blinded by the smoke and the wind blew ashes up and made white rings around their eyes. They returned without the fire.
The Racer Snake went next. He swam across and found a small hole at the bottom of the stump. He went inside, but there was too much smoke and heat. He darted back and forth over the hot ashes until he finally found the hole and escaped outside. He was burned black and, to this day, he darts back and forth over his trail. Today, he is known as the Black Racer.
A Great Snake tried next. He swam across and climbed up the outside of the stump. When he put his head over and down into the stump, the smoke choked him, and he fell into the stump. Before he could get out again, he was burned as black as the Racer.
This time, the little Water Spider said she would go. She was the one with red hairy legs that was so light she could walk on the water. She wove a basket from her silk and placed it on her back. She crossed the water and went into the stump. She took up a coal, placed it in her bowl and returned with the coal. Ever since then we have had fire, and the little Water Spider has kept her bowl.
THE FIRST STRAWBERRY
Long ago, the First Man and the First Woman appeared on the Earth. They got into a big argument, and the First Woman decided she had had enough of the First Man. So she started walking away as fast as she could go. The First Man thought, “I’ll let her go. I don’t need her around here anyway.”
But then he started thinking, “Well, I enjoyed talking with her, I enjoyed sitting with her and I enjoyed just being around her. Maybe I was wrong.”
So the First Man started walking after the First Woman. He walked all day long, and he could see her far ahead of him, a little dot on the distant horizon. The Sun fell. The First Man walked on into the night after the First Woman. He walked all night long, and when the Sun rose the next morning in the east, he looked ahead and could just barely see the First Woman. She, too, had walked all night long, and she was still the same distance ahead of him. He kept walking—he had to catch her and tell her he had been wrong.
As the Sun rose into the sky, he looked down on the First Man and took pity on him. The Sun decided to help the First Man and he caused some huckleberries to grow up along the path the First Woman was taking. The First Woman walked past the huckleberries and didn’t pay any attention to them. The Sun tried again, this time making some blackberries grow up along the path she was taking. The First Woman walked past the blackberries and didn’t pay any attention to them either. The Sun tried again. He made a new fruit grow up in the field through which she was walking. The First Woman was walking through the fruit, crushing it under her feet and not paying any attention to it, so the Sun added a scent to the fruit. The scent started drifting up until finally it reached the woman’s nose.
The First Woman stopped and looked around to see from where that wonderful smell was coming. She looked behind her and saw where she had crushed the fruit. She bent down, picked up one of the fruits and smelled it. That was where the wonderful smell was coming from! She took a small bite and it was delicious. She took another bite and it was wonderful. She ate the rest of it and then she looked around and saw the entire field was filled with this new fruit. She thought, “My husband would enjoy this.”
She started gathering the new fruit. When she had finally gathered all that she could carry, she turned and started back to meet her husband. And that was how the First Man and the First Woman came back together again. The First Woman was coming back to share the delicious food with the First Man. Today, this food is red and it is in the shape of a heart because it brought the First Man and First Woman back together again. We know this food as the strawberry.
THE FIRST TOBACCO
In the old days, before the Cherokee lost the gift of being able to talk to the Animals, we had one tobacco plant. In those days, we used it for healing. There was an Old Woman of our people who took sick. The Medicine Man went to see her. After he had examined her, he realized that he could heal her with a leaf from the tobacco plant. He told a Warrior to go get him a leaf. The Warrior went into the forest, but when he got to where the tobacco plant had been, he found a great big hole in the ground. He looked on the ground around the hole and he saw the tracks of Geese.
In those days, Geese were fierce fighters and nobody wanted to fight with them unless they really had to. The Warrior realized that the Geese had dug up the plant and had taken it to their camp far away in the south. He went back to the Medicine Man and told him what he had found.
The Medicine Man called in the Animals and the Warriors. He told them that the Old Woman was sick and that he could heal her with a leaf from the tobacco plant, but the Geese had taken it to their camp in the south. He then asked for someone to go to their camp and bring back a leaf.
The Deer said he would go. He traveled very fast and after a while he could hear the Geese, for they were as noisy then as they are now. He eased through the bushes until he came to a clearing. The tobacco was planted out in the middle of the clearing and the Geese were in a circle guarding it. The Deer went running out into the clearing, leaped over the Geese and went charging toward the tobacco plant. The Geese gave the alarm call and more Geese flew in from all over. They knocked the Deer to the ground and killed him.
The Medicine Man knew when the Deer had passed. He called the Animals and the Warriors together again. They were told that the Deer would not be coming back and they all knew what that meant. The Medicine Man asked for someone else to go and this time the Bear said he would go. The Bear traveled to the south and after a while he could hear the Geese. Easing through the bushes, he saw the Geese and the tobacco plant. The Bear went charging out into the clearing, knocking the Geese aside. The Geese gave the alarm call and others flew in from all over. They knocked the Bear to the ground and killed him.
The Medicine Man knew when the Bear had passed. He called the Animals and Warriors together again. They were told that the Bear would not be coming back. Again, the Medicine Man asked for someone to go, and this time the Mole said he would go. The Mole traveled underground, coming up to the surface to get his bearings and then returning underground. Finally, he came up to the surface and could hear the Geese. Easing through the bushes, he saw the Geese and the tobacco plant. Going back underground, he started digging toward the tobacco. As noisy as the Geese are, they have very good hearing. They followed the noise of the Mole digging underground, dug him up and killed him.
The Medicine Man knew when the Mole had passed. He called the Animals and Warriors together again. He told them the Mole would not be coming back and asked for someone else to go. This time, everybody was quiet. The Deer, as fast and agile as he was, had been killed. The Bear, as big and formidable as he was, had been killed. The Mole, as small and secretive as he was, had been killed. Finally, the Hummingbird said he would go.
Everybody looked at him and started laughing. Someone asked, “You? What can you do?”
The Hummingbird said, “I will try. Does anyone else want to go?”
Everyone was quiet. The Hummingbird said, “Then I will go.”
The Hummingbird was very fast and it wasn’t long before he could hear the Geese
. He flew up and landed on the branch of a tree. Below him were the circle of Geese and the tobacco plant. Darting over the Geese, he landed on the tobacco plant. Quickly, he looked around and realized the Geese were so busy talking that they hadn’t seen him. Snipping off some seeds and a leaf, he held them in his beak. Darting back over the heads of the Geese, he landed on the tree branch again. He still hadn’t been seen. After flying north, back to the land of the Cherokee, the Hummingbird went to the Medicine Man and gave him the seeds and the leaf.
The Medicine Man called in the Warriors. He gave each of them a seed and told them, “Go plant these through our land so we will never want for our medicine again.”
Then he crumpled up the leaf and burned it. Gently, he fanned the smoke across the Old Woman’s face and she was healed. She lived for many more years, sharing her knowledge with our people.
The Hummingbird teaches us the lesson in this story. Too often we will look at this shell that we live in and determine what a person can or cannot do. That is wrong. The Hummingbird teaches us that the shell is not important; what is important is what is in the heart.
ISHI
In northern California, near the small town of Oroville, on August 29, 1911, a rancher was awakened early in the morning by his dogs barking. He got a light and his gun and went out to check on what was causing all the noise. In one of his buildings he found a half-naked man shivering with fright. He called the sheriff. The sheriff took the man to jail and tried to talk to him. The man did not respond. The sheriff sent for one of the elders of a nearby tribe. The elder sat with the man for a while trying to talk. Finally, he came out and told the sheriff, “He speaks an old language. I can’t understand him.”
By now, newspaper reporters had heard of the capture of a “wild Indian.” Their headlines proclaimed, “Last Wild Indian Captured!” People were coming from all over to see the wild Indian. One day a man walked into the sheriff’s office and said his name was T. Waterman and he was a professor of anthropology from the University of California. He wondered if he could try and talk to the wild Indian. The sheriff agreed, and led the professor back to the man’s cell.
The professor tried several of the California tribal languages that were spoken at that time. The man did not respond to any of them. Finally, in desperation, the professor tried some languages that were extinct. When trying one of the words, he saw the man glance up. The professor tried the word again. The man said the word a different way. The professor said it the same way the man had and he saw the man sit up. He was responding! The professor tried other words and the man started talking. Each time he would say the word a little differently than the professor. The professor realized the man was speaking “Yana,” a language that had been extinct for decades.
The professor called his associate at the university and told him the wild Indian was speaking Yana. Arrangements were quickly made for the wild Indian to become a “ward” of the university. The sheriff agreed since he couldn’t talk to the prisoner at all.
The wild Indian was taken to the university where Professors Waterman and Kroeber would sit and talk to him. He was taken to the university teaching hospital, which was next to the museum. There, Dr. Sexton Pope examined him to make sure he was not suffering from any illnesses. After working with him for a while, the professors realized that he was from the Yahi, a part of the southern Yana Indians. By Yahi tradition, he was not allowed to speak his name or the names of the dead. So, Professor Kroeber gave him the name “Ishi,” which is Yana for “man.” As they learned more of his language, Ishi was also learning English. Soon, Ishi was able to carry on a simple conversation in English. Dr. Pope was very interested in archery and was soon asking Ishi questions about the type of bow and arrows he used. Ishi enjoyed talking about his way of life. Soon they became close friends.
Ishi was fascinated by the “healing place,” his word for the hospital. He would roam the halls, making friends and learning. He could not understand how they could “kill” a person, cut him open, close him back up and then he would come back to “life.”
As others learned more about Ishi’s way of life, their respect for him grew. At first, they didn’t understand why Ishi would cringe whenever he heard a dog barking. Ishi explained that barking dogs meant death to his people. His people would hear the dogs barking as they came up the mountains and they would know that the white men were coming with guns to kill them. They would scatter into the mountains. They would hear gunshots and later, when they would gather at the meeting place, there were always some who were missing. Each time, their numbers grew smaller and smaller. Finally, there were only Ishi, his mother and his sister. Once again they heard the dogs and they scattered into the mountains. Ishi had heard gunshots in the direction his mother had taken. Then he heard gunshots in the direction his sister had taken. Later, he returned to the gathering place and waited for several days, but neither his mother nor his sister showed up. He never saw his mother or sister again. Everybody he had ever known was gone.
It was hard work finding food, and it took several people working together to gather enough food to survive. One person by himself could not gather enough food to live. Soon, starvation drove Ishi down out of the mountains. It was then that he was found in the rancher’s buildings looking for food.
Ishi would be taken on sightseeing tours to show him the “white man’s world.” They thought that skyscrapers with people living in them would impress him. He simply said, “Like big mountains. I lived in mountains.”
They pointed out airplanes in the sky. Ishi had seen and heard them flying over often enough that he paid them no attention. But he was intrigued with a window shade that would roll up. “Where does it go?” he asked. Then he was taken to the beach. He was stunned! When his people had gathered, he had only seen fifty to sixty people at the most. There on the beach he saw thousands. He did not know that that many people existed in the world.
Bows would disappear from the museum. The museum staff would know that Dr. Pope and Ishi were trying them out and discussing the various merits of each bow. When they were finished, the bows would mysteriously return to their place in the museum.
Ishi was given his own room and was assigned the task of helping out in the museum. He had learned how to wear the clothes of the white man. Soon, he learned how to get around using the trolley cars and was doing his own shopping.
He loved talking about his way of life, and he was asked if he would be willing to talk to the public about it. He agreed, and a Sunday lecture date was sent to the newspapers. He was asked if he would wear his traditional clothing for his talk. He said, “No.” With quiet dignity he said it would be very impolite to wear his clothing in the white man’s world. When the Sunday of the lecture arrived, several people showed up. They listened intently to Ishi and asked many questions. When it was over, they asked when he would do it again. The response was totally unexpected, but another date was set. This time more people showed up. The word quickly spread, and Ishi’s talks were eagerly received. Soon, it was a regular Sunday afternoon event at the museum. By this time more people were coming to hear Ishi on Sunday afternoon than were coming to the museum during the rest of the week.
Then, one day, Ishi was found lying on the floor of the museum. He was rushed to the hospital.
Dr. Pope immediately took charge, arguing that no one knew Ishi better than he did. Word quickly spread throughout the hospital that Ishi was seriously ill. As usual, Ishi had made many friends when he was roaming the “healing place.” Members of the staff quietly gathered in the hallway outside of his room awaiting word of his condition. Nurses were scurrying in and out of Ishi’s room carrying Dr. Pope’s tests as he tried to find out what was wrong with him. Finally, Dr. Pope came out of Ishi’s room. Sweat beaded his forehead and his face was pale. Quietly, he told the waiting staff, “Ishi is in the latter stages of tuberculosis.” Ishi had been feeling weak for some time and hadn’t been able to keep his food down. But he hadn’t said anythi
ng because he didn’t want to be a “bother” to anyone. On March 25, 1916, Ishi passed away.
As was the custom among his people, the following items were placed in his coffin: his favorite bow and five arrows, several obsidian shards, a pouch of dried corn and a pouch of acorn meal for his journey.
He was then cremated. Ishi’s ashes were placed in a small black pueblo jar. The inscription reads, “Ishi, the last Yana, 1916.”
Ishi had learned the language, the customs and even how to wear the clothes of a culture that had hunted his people to extinction and yet he was the one called the “savage.”
I will end Ishi’s story with his own preferred phrase of farewell, “You stay, I go.”
THE MAGIC LAKE OF THE ANIMALS
In western North Carolina, deep in the Great Smoky Mountains, you will find the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River. It is said that if you go west from these headwaters you will find a large, grassy plain. There will be no Animals that you can see, for this is the Magic Lake of the Animals.
To see what is there, first you must fast the day before going to this area. The next morning, after fasting, as you travel to the west you will hear many Ducks and the call of other Animals. Soon you will see flocks of Ducks and Geese flying overhead. If you move quietly through the bushes, you will see a huge, shallow lake. Water will be pouring out of the cliffs overlooking the lake. Waterfowl of all kinds will be resting on the surface. Animals will be walking around the shore.
An Animal that is injured will wade out into the lake and swim across. When he comes out on the other side he will be healed. If an Animal has been injured and can make it to the lake then he can be healed. The Animals move around the lake in peace. Here, there is no fighting.
This is the Magic Lake of the Animals.
THE MILKY WAY
Long-Ago Stories of the Eastern Cherokee Page 2