Cherokee Rites of Passage
It was a tradition that allowed each member in the community to know where "one stood". It marked a time of a female child becoming a woman, and a male child a warrior, and a hunter a provider.
From that moment on there was no confusion of where one stood in the eyes of the whole community or Village. Roles were defined and honored often at this time one was given a new name as well as gifts.
A woman may have received cooking tools, hides, blankets, those things that would aid herein establishing her own lodge. A man may receive a bow and arrows made by a grandfather, or a father. Tools he would need for hunting for providing food for his lodge.
When the village, the community, saw one was ready to take on the roles of adult. A feast would be held and a special ceremony would be held. The man or woman that this ceremony was being held for would stand before the whole village and it would be known that now they were to be seen as a man and woman.
Each knowing the responsibilities that carried. A daughter could not run back to her mothers lodge to seek help, or be treated again as a child and seek her mother or father to fix it. She was a woman. Nor could a man run back to his mother or fathers lodge seeking help or seek his parents to step in and help him to resolve a problem. He was a man. Confusion no swaying back and forth between a child and an adult.
Those in the village respected this passage of rites and they would be respected as an adult and treated as such . To act in a manner that disrespected the honor given to you, (and being seen as an adult ready to stand as an equal with the adults of the village was an honor) those in the village would turn their backs on to you when you passed by. No door would open in anothers lodge for you to enter. You would become isolated, made to deal with your choice no place to turn but to your self.
When one started to walk with respect, behaving as an adult was to behave within the community, those in the community would watch, saying nothing. Once he/she showed they had grown, learned, that they had once again were acting on the behalf of the whole, not self, an Elder would speak to them, signaling to the others that their brothers and sisters were once again part of the community. No more or no less, no repercussion, no being raked over hot coals, simply accepted back.
In the Cherokee cultures way is for the village to raise a child, to care for our sick, our elderly, to be as one family.
