Cherokee Mythology Research Paper

In many Native tribe myths there are gods and goddesses whom are spoken of, such as one of the greatest gods who went by the name Red Man. Within the Cherokee tribe they were connected to the world by spiritual beings, such as elemental gods of the Sun, Fire, and Water. “The Cherokee, or ‘The real people’ lived in what is today present Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina” (Raley). In Cherokee Mythology they believed in one Supreme Being who taught them to treat the world with great respect; to this day, traditions of the Cherokee ancestors are still followed by many. Within believing in one spiritual being the myths told by elders have helped teach the young many lessons in life. One of the main traditions was that everything on earth was praised in the eyes of the Cherokee Nation, whether it was from the plants that grew on the floor of the earth to the stars in the night sky. “The Indians saw the land as a living being, as a mother who nurtured” (Bible Scriptre ). So when the Europeans offered to sell their land to the Cherokees, they considered it as a gift of a new friendship, and not as transferring ownership from one human being to another. Even though the Europeans disliked the Cherokee people because in their opinion “native practices looked like childish magic and evil superstition to the Christian Europeans. Who usually regarded the Natives as ‘savage heathens’ ” (Raley). The cause of this has made many the Cherokee “in the east reluctant to confess their ties, due in part to the racism and in part to fears left from the forced removal of the nineteenth century”(Parker 15). In the Cherokee environment animals, plants and geographical surroundings played another one of the main roles in the myths told and also in everyday routines. The Cherokee did not think that they were separated from their environment but a part of it. “The numbers four and seven repeatedly occur in myths, stories and ceremonies”(Bible Scripture). In the Cherokee world the number four represents the North, South, East, and West, and are sometimes represented by colors. “The color North is Blue which represents sadness, defeat”(Pike 71). Then the number seven represents the seven main Cherokee tribes, and also the amount of sacredness that one obtains and is also hard to keep it at such level. The Cherokee main concern was keeping things in the correct category. One religion of the Cherokee is Zootheism, which is the worship of animals and their spirits. One of the main animals that the Cherokee worshiped and is in many myths is the Humming Bird which transferred the nectar from tobacco plants. The tobacco nectar was used to heal the sick and elderly of any pain that occurred within their body. The Cherokee gods included those in …show more content…
It stated that all Native American Indians east of the Mississippi River were to move to the west of the Mississippi, but for those who did not want to move they had to become more civilized to stay in their homeland territory. The deadline for voluntary removal was on 23 May 1838, if they did not move by then, by that time the current President Van Buren had taken over and hired General Winfield Scott to forcefully remove the Cherokee people who remained in their