Stories and Teachings of the Natural World

 

Osiyo! Welcome to a celebration of the Cherokee cosmos.

 

Ayetli gadogv—to “stand in the middle”—is at the heart of a Cherokee perspective of the natural world. From this stance, we wish to offer you a rich understanding of nature grounded in Cherokee creature names, oral traditional stories, and reflections of knowledge holders.

During his lifetime, elder Hastings Shade created booklets with over six hundred Cherokee names for animals and plants. With this foundational collection at its center, and weaving together a chorus of voices, this work emerges from a deep and continuing collaboration between Christopher B. Teuton, Hastings Shade, Loretta Shade, Larry Shade, and others.

 

Positioning our responsibilities as humans to our more-than-human relatives, we present teachings about the body, mind, spirit, and wellness that have been shared for generations. From clouds to birds, oceans to quarks, this expansive Cherokee view of nature reveals a living, communicative world and humanity's role within it.

 

CONTENT TO COME: The photo above-right is a placeholder for a video welcome by Christopher Teuton and Larry Shade introducing themselves and telling the story of this work's origin. To help you imagine the contents, refer to this text. The photo here depicts Hastings Shade gig fishing.

 

Explore the Cherokee Cosmos

CONTENT TO COME: The illustration above by Cherokee artist MaryBeth Timothy is a placeholder for a new illustration MaryBeth is creating. It will depict the three worlds of the Cherokee cosmos and will act as an interactive Table of Contents. You will be able to hover over and click on different animals and elements to enter into the different chapters.

 

Table of Contents

 

• Introduction
• Living in Tohi
• The Middle World
• The Sky World
• The Under World
• [creature groups]
• Cherokee Language
• Working Together
• Further Learning

In the Table of Contents above, bold sections are drafted for your review; italicized sections are partially drafted for your review; and other sections are presented with descriptions of content to come.