~The old man and the Wolf Clan~
It is said that one day in the beginning
of
time,when the villages were first
built..
a old man came out of the woods, and he
went
down to the Clans of the Cherokee..
The old man was sick with a cold and had
sores all over his body...
He came to the first woman in charge of
the
first clan, and asked" Would you take me
in
and make me well?"
The woman looked horrified , and
exclaimed
"Oh!, you look terrible, we don't know
how to
make you well".. Go Away!!
The man leaves the first village and
goes to
another clan of the Cherokee, possibly
the
blue clan...
As he approaches the village, a woman
comes
out and starts screaming,"We have
children
here, go away."
the old man goes to all the villages of
the
cherokee and it's always the same, he is
turned away...
Finally the old man comes to the Wolf
Clan of
the Cherokee..
The old man is very sick and full of
sores
all over his body, he approaches a woman
of
the Wolf clan and asks her "Will you
take me
in and make me well"...
the woman looks at the old man and feels
sorry for him and tells him " I don't
know
what to do for you,but if you come in,
you
may lay down on the bed and rest..
The woman tells the old man, that she
will do
what she can to help make him better...
After the old man has rested for awhile,
he
tells the woman to go into the forest
and get
the bark from the cherry tree and bring
it
back and make tea from it...
The woman does as the old man asks, and
he is
cured of his cold...
The old man tells the woman , go back
into
the forest and get some bark from the
willow
tree, and make it into a poultice and
place
it on my sores...
the woman does as the old man asks and
his
sores heal..
The old man does this time after time,
telling the woman what to get and how to
prepare it, and what it would cure...
After the old man had been completely
cured
of all his aliments, he got up out of
the bed
and said to the woman..
Woman since you have so good to me, I
have
taught you all the cures of the forest..
and
from this day forward, you, the woman of
the
Wolf Clan will be the Doctors of the
villages..
This is how the Cherokee People learned
how
to cure people of all their ailments...
How the Bluebird and
Coyote
Got Their Color
The bluebird is very blue, as blue as a
brilliant lake. Many moons ago the
bluebird
used to be white. One day he was flying
and
came upon a lake and saw how blue and
beautiful it was.
He stopped and asked Grandfather,
"Grandfather, can I be as blue as that
lake?"
So Grandfather gave him a song to sing.
He
told him what to do. Every morning for
five
mornings the bluebird would dive down
into
the lake singing the song taught to him
by
Grandfather then come back up.
The whole time he was doing this the
coyote
was watching him. On the fifth day, the
bluebird dove into the lake, and when he
came
back out, he was as blue as he is today.
The coyote saw this and thought to
himself,
"Hmmmm... I'd like to be as blue as that
bluebird.
So he said to the bluebird, "Teach me
your
song." So every morning for the next
five
days the coyote would take a bath and
sing
the song from Grandfather. And on the
fifth
day the coyote came out and was just as
blue
as the bluebird.
The coyote looked at himself in the
reflection of the water and thought,
"My, I'm
the prettiest coyote there is. There is
none
prettier than me.
So he strutted down the road, not unlike
a
peacock, looking around to make sure all
the
other animals could see him and see how
truly
beautiful was his color.
He was so intent on having everyone know
how
colorful and beautiful he was that he
paid no
attention to where he was going in the
road.
He ran into a tree, fell down into a
dirt
road, rolled around and came up.
That's why, when you see him today, he's
brown and dirty.
That's how he got the color of his fur.
How We Got Fire
For many moons we did not have fire.
People
on the other side of the earth, they had
fire; and the four-leggeds knew it.
They held a council to determine how to
obtain the fire. The first one to
volunteer
to go and bring back the fire was the
great
buzzard.
He flew halfway across the earth,
swooped
down into the other's camp and, with a
mighty
claw, grabbed up a handful of the fire.
As he was flying away, he hid it in the
feathers on the back of his head. The
fire
was too hot and burned his feathers off.
That's why, when you see the buzzard
today,
you'll see he has no feathers there.
That's
why he's bald.
So the buzzard returned to camp.
Now the possum decided it was his turn
to
try. He would go and bring back the fire
for
his people.
I can sneak into camp," he thought. "I
can
get the fire.
So he traveled halfway across the earth,
waited till nightfall, sneaked into the
camp,
grabbed some of the fire and hid it in
his
tail.
Before he could leave, the fire burned
off
all the fur on his tail.
That's why the possum has no fur on his
tail
now. He used to have such a beautiful
furry
tail!
He went back to camp, and they all
thought
that it was lost. They could not do
this.
They could not get the fire.
But all the while, the small grandmother
spider kept saying, "I can do this. I
know I
can!" Everyone laughed at her, but still
the
small spider kept insisting that she
could do
it!
Still she wanted her chance to try! So
they
all agreed to let her try. First, she
dug up
some clay and made a pot, then began
spinning
her web.
Halfway around the world she traveled,
spinning her web and carrying her pot,
all
the way to the other's camp.
She waited till night and sneaked into
their
camp. She took a bit of their fire, put
it
into the clay pot, then carried it back
to
their side of the earth to share with
her
people.
That's how we got fire, and that's also
the
beginning of how the Cherokee people
learned
pottery making.
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