Publications

Living Stories of the Cherokee

This remarkable book, the first major new collection of Cherokee stories published in nearly a hundred years, presents seventy-two traditional and contemporary tales from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. It features stories told by Davey Arch, Robert Bushyhead, Edna Chekelelee, Marie Junaluska, Kathi Smith Littlejohn, and Freeman Owle- six Cherokee storytellers who learned their art and their stories from family and community.

The tales gathered here include animal stories, creation myths, legends, and ghost stories as well as family tales and stories about such events in Cherokee history as the Trail of Tears. Taken together, they demonstrate that storytelling is a living, vital tradition. As new stories are added and old stories are changed or forgotten, Cherokee storytelling grows and evolves.

In an introductory essay, Barbara Duncan writes about the Cherokee storytelling tradition and explains the “oral poetics” style in which the stories are presented. This format effectively conveys the rhythmic, oral quality of the living storytelling tradition, allowing the reader to “hear” the voice of the storyteller.

The Origin of the Milky Way and Other Living Stories of the Cherokee

Cherokee people have lived in the Great Smoky Mountains for thousands of years. During all this time, they have told stories to each other to explain how things came to be, to pass on lessons about life, and to describe the mountains, animals, plants, and spirits around them. The Origin of the Milky Way and Other Living Stories of the Cherokee collects 26 stories that are great for kids and are still being told by storytellers today.

Presented by members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in their own words, the stories appear in free-verse form, like poems on the page, so that if you read them aloud, you can hear the rhythm of the stories as they were originally told. Barbara R. Duncan provides a helpful introduction that describes Cherokee people’s past and present ways of life and their storytelling traditions. The book also includes a glossary of key words from the stories, suggestions for further reading, and notes on the storytellers. For young readers, for parents to read aloud to young listeners, and for teachers and libraries, The Origin of the Milky Way provides an excellent introduction to Cherokee culture. (For readers age 9 and up.)

Plants and The Cherokee

Plants and the Cherokee is a cooperative effort by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, the North Carolina Botanical Garden, and Laurel Hill Press. Second in the “Take a Closer Look” series, this video tells the story about the relationship between the Cherokee and the plants that are a part of their world. The rich culture of the Cherokee is presented through vivid imagery of the land and people, the sounds of nature, and the sounds of the Cherokee, including their native language, their stories, and their music. The special stories of seven plants representative of the more than 800 kinds of plants used for food, clothing, housing, or medicine are told, first taking a close look at the plant as it lives in the natural world, then exploring the way in which the Cherokee people used and appreciated these native plants.

Plants and the Cherokee is a valuable resource for Native American studies in elementary, middle and high school curricula. Teachers, environmental educators, naturalists, and anyone interested in the natural world and Native American culture will find this colorful and authentic video invaluable.