Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part A

I chose the Cherokee stories because I am from Georgia, and in fact the county I'm from was created after the Cherokee were kicked out. I have read the creation story before in a class I took last semester called Native Earth Systems. It combined geology and meteorology with the Native stories that address those topics. 

I like the origin of the Pleiades and the pine, and how they are the same. Pine trees do reflect light differently than deciduous trees. 

The Pleiades. Web Source: Wikipedia.

Oh wow. I am familiar with the sun and moon as lovers, but not as incestuous siblings. 

It would be cool to write about the frog that swallows the sun during eclipses. For instance, why does he eat the sun? How does he do that without being burned up? How does he feel when he is chased off by drums? What happens to him afterwards? I could set it during the most recent solar eclipse. 

The flood story, where the man was warned by his dog who told him to build a raft, was really interesting. I wish the story had told more what had happened to the dog. It does not say if the man threw him off the raft like he was told. Why did the dog have to be thrown off? Did he survive? 

Wait were strawberries originally cultivated in the Americas? See Wikipedia Trails for more information. Cross-culturally, it appears that women are susceptible to fruit, as in the story of Eve. Part of the end result of that story was also desire for her husband. 

I would enjoy getting my hair cut a lot more if a cricket were the hair-cutter. Can crickets sing and cut hare? 

Hey look, it's the tortoise and the hare - I mean Terrapin and Rabbit. It is interesting that in the Tortoise and the Hare the hare loses because of his laziness, while the Terrapin wins because of his cleverness and community. 

Bibliography: James Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee, Link.