Cherokee Legends
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
retold by Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian children When I taught grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 at Cherokee Elementary School (over a period of 9 years), the students and I particularly enjoyed hearing their own legends, then retelling them in their own words. The children's favorite (whatever group I taught) was Spearfinger. Two versions of the Spearfinger story are included here, along with a number of other legends. I never had trouble motivating the students to read and write when I announced that we would start another legend. The
children who worked on these projects are descended from a small
remnant of Cherokee who escaped the Trail of Tears walk to Oklahoma.
These ancestors hid in the mountains of their homeland, and were finally able to purchase land (with the help of a white friend who had been adopted by the tribe), which is now held in trust by the United States Government. This reservation (in North Carolina) is known as the Qualla Boundary. There
are three separate bands of Cherokee: the Eastern Band (in
or near Cherokee, North Carolina), the Kituhwa Band (in Arkansas,
descended from those who emigrated voluntarily before the removal),
and the Western Band of Cherokee (descended from those who walked
the trail to Talequah, Oklahoma). Many of these legends
are shared by all three bands of Cherokee. The children
who worked on these projects are Eastern Cherokee. |
|