The Origin of Judaculla Rock
Research by EJ Kornhauser
No other rocks in the area have similar markings, although there are many other boulders in the vicinity. Some of the pictographs on it appear to be animals and animal tracks, while others appear to be human figures, suns, and geometric figures.Judaculla---or Jutaculla--- Rock is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries in the United States. The largest petroglyph in North Carolina, and one of the largest in the Southeast, is named for a Cherokee legend about its formation. Judaculla Rock sits in the Caney Fork Creek valley in Jackson County, outside of Cullowhee. The details of the petroglyph's formation, as well as its origin and purpose, are unknown to scientists.
The soapstone slab is about sixteen feet long by eleven feet wide. The designs on it appear to have been produced in a variety of manners, including incising, pecking, and smoothing. These methods are evident upon close examination, but are becoming more difficult to identify with the continued erosion of the rock. In the late 19th century, Cherokee groups were known to hold ceremonial assemblies around the rock. Additional outcrops of soapstone, used by Cherokees then to sculpt pipes, beads, bowls, and banner stones, are located near the Judaculla Rock. Archaeologists think the Cherokees camped at, or near, the rock when they came to quarry soapstone. Furthermore, due to recent excavations of the areas surrounding Judaculla, scientists now postulate that the rock was part of a larger grouping of soapstone creations.
James Mooney, a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution, recorded the Cherokee legend of Judaculla Rock in the 1880s. According to Mooney's story, a being named Judaculla (called by the Cherokee Tsul-ka-lu or Tsu’ Kalu--- the Great Slant-eyed Giant) was the greatest of all the Cherokee mythical characters, a giant hunter who lived on the southwestern slope of Richland Balsam Mountain at the head of the Tuckaseegee River in Jackson County. Judaculla was very powerful and could control the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. He was known to drink whole streams down in a single gulp and stomp from mountain to mountain as one might over anthills. (In fact, according to Sequoyah’s Cherokee translation of the Bible, the word 'Goliath' was renamed Judaculla.)
One legend claims that the markings are hunting laws that Judaculla ordered. Another has it that Judaculla jumped from his mountaintop farm and landed partially on the rock, producing scratches, while running a band of American Indians off his land. The seven-toed foot at the lower right hand side of the boulder is said to depict Judaculla's footprint.
The rock was once thought to depict a map of the 1755 Cherokee victory over the Creeks at the battle of Taliwa in what is now Georgia, or perhaps a victory over another enemy, the Catawba. Archeologists now know that the Judaculla Rock predates the Cherokee habitation of western North Carolina, but its exact time of origin is unknown. It is currently dated from the late Archaic Period, between 3000 and 1000 BCE, when evidence first appears of Native American societies forming mound societies.
Source used: http://appalachianhistory.blogspot.com/2008/11/judaculla-rock.html
Friday, April 3, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Photos from Judaculla Rock
These photos were taken by David at Judaculla Rock.
This was taken at the Visitor's Center in Cherokee.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Jon Adkins notes from a Cherokee Guide
These are notes copied from 'Your Cherokee Guide' found at the visitor's center in Cherokee, North Carolina.
Your Cherokee Guide
Web site: http://www.cherokee-nc.com/
The Cherokee people have lived here in Western North Carolina for at least 10,000+ years. At the end of the Ice Age, their forebears hunted mastodons with spears in these very mountains. Over thousands of following years, the emerging Cherokee people or “Ani-Kituhwa-gi” developed permanent towns with flourishing agriculture, elegant handcrafts, sophisticated politics, religion, and fiercely effective arts of war.
An empire of towns
Cherokee towns typically included 350 to 500 inhabitants whose summer and winter houses ringed a central plaza used for ceremonies, dances, and games. Each family had its own garden plot, tended by the women, and every town had a communal plot to feed visitors and the poor. The interplanting of “the three sisters”-corn, beans, and squash- allowed the corn to support the beans while the squash leaves shaded out weeds, reducing the time spent in the fields. With that, Cherokee women gained more time for handcrafts, play, and worship.
Men hunted and fished, helped in the fields, enjoying games like stickball, and pursued the trade, diplomacy, and war required to maintain an empire that at its height included 36,000 people holding 140,000 square miles throughout eight present- day southern states.
Peaceable ways
Through formidable when crossed, the Cherokee inclined to peace and harmony. They guided their children more by instructive stories than force or harsh words. Women enjoyed respect and honor, owning the land and running the households. Men cultivated friendships so profound that they were formalized with vows of eternal unity, emulating the bond between each Cherokee on earth with The Creator Who Dwelt Above.
Towns governed themselves democratically, with all the adults gathering to discuss matters of import in each town’s council house. For Cherokee groups and individuals, the goal was integration and balance of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of living. Through pursuing duyuktv, “the right way,”- each Cherokee became “a real Person” or Ani-Yvwiya.
Hospitality…
Generosity was a cardinal virtue. Anyone hungry would be fed; anyone traveling would be housed. For the first 200 years of contact with Europeans coming through and into Cherokee lands, starting with the De Soto in 1540, the Cherokees extended hospitality to the newcomers, treating them as potential friends who clearly needed help.
The Cherokees also showed great curiosity, flexibility, and openness, readily adopting useful aspects of the newcomers’ culture, from peaches and watermelons to “talking leaves” as they called written language. The Cherokee genius who invented the Cherokee alphabet, Sequoyah, is the only known person to invent a written language without being literate in any language beforehand. In 1821, Sequoyah introduced his “syllabary” to the Cherokee National Council. Within months, the Cherokee nation became literate.
… and betrayal
Perhaps more than any other major Native American Tribe, the Cherokees proved themselves to be neighborly, industrious, and open to outside ideas. But the onrushing settlers and, ultimately, the U.S. Government did not want Cherokee neighbors – only Cherokee land. In 1838, this pressure culminated in the tragic Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokee in the East to Oklahoma. One quarter to half of the 16,000 Cherokee who began the long march died of exposure, disease, and the shock of exile.
Rebirth despite All
In spite of all efforts to dispossess the Cherokee of their ancestral home, today more than 12,000 Cherokee – the Eastern band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) – live in North Carolina. They descend from a small number of early landowners, from those who hid in the hills, defying Removal, and from those who returned, many on foot. They have created a unique society, a sovereign nation of 100 square miles, called the Qualla boundary, where timeless ways and wisdom blend with openness to the world at large. Come to Cherokee. We welcome your discovery of the ancient, proud, and vibrant culture right in your backyard.
The Mother Tongue: once forbidden, now spoken by proud, composed toddlers
In 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Captain R. H. Pratt opened the first Native American boarding school to forcibly acculturate Indians to mainstream white society. “Kill the Indian and save the Man,” Pratt said. Towards this goal, Indian Children throughout North America were taken from their homes and families, given “white” names, wardrobes, and haircuts, and forbidden to speak any language but English.
The Cherokee Boarding School, founded in 1880, likewise maintained an English-only policy until 1933, with devastating effect on Cherokee fluency. Now, however, thanks to a Language Initiative grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, programs to foster the Cherokee language are spreading through Qualla Boundary and beyond.
For instance, in three classrooms at the Tribal Child Care Center, children ranging from infants to three year-olds hear and speak only Cherokee, learning English from their families and the broader environment. Studies find that children who are fluent in both their Mother Tongue and the mainstream language perform better academically than their monolingual peers, plans are afoot to extend The Cherokee Immersion program through the fifth grade. The preschool students now in the program have already distinguished themselves as the most dignified, respectful, and attentive children among their age – mates on the boundary.
“Cherokee speakers have a different way of carrying themselves,” notes one Immersion teacher, “and this communicates itself to and through these children.”
Older students and adults on the Boundary are also eager to improve their Cherokee, but with most fluent speakers over the age of 50 and numbers dying every year, there are not enough teachers. To address this, the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program is developing Cherokee-language video podcasts and interactive online Cherokee Classes, promoting a venerable language with cutting-edge technology. Meanwhile, nearby Western Carolina University is developing a Cherokee Language Academy. Staff members will develop Cherokee Language courses and Certification programs, recruit students to become language teachers, and create a Kituwah Teaching Fellows Program.
Your Cherokee Guide
Web site: http://www.cherokee-nc.com/
The Cherokee people have lived here in Western North Carolina for at least 10,000+ years. At the end of the Ice Age, their forebears hunted mastodons with spears in these very mountains. Over thousands of following years, the emerging Cherokee people or “Ani-Kituhwa-gi” developed permanent towns with flourishing agriculture, elegant handcrafts, sophisticated politics, religion, and fiercely effective arts of war.
An empire of towns
Cherokee towns typically included 350 to 500 inhabitants whose summer and winter houses ringed a central plaza used for ceremonies, dances, and games. Each family had its own garden plot, tended by the women, and every town had a communal plot to feed visitors and the poor. The interplanting of “the three sisters”-corn, beans, and squash- allowed the corn to support the beans while the squash leaves shaded out weeds, reducing the time spent in the fields. With that, Cherokee women gained more time for handcrafts, play, and worship.
Men hunted and fished, helped in the fields, enjoying games like stickball, and pursued the trade, diplomacy, and war required to maintain an empire that at its height included 36,000 people holding 140,000 square miles throughout eight present- day southern states.
Peaceable ways
Through formidable when crossed, the Cherokee inclined to peace and harmony. They guided their children more by instructive stories than force or harsh words. Women enjoyed respect and honor, owning the land and running the households. Men cultivated friendships so profound that they were formalized with vows of eternal unity, emulating the bond between each Cherokee on earth with The Creator Who Dwelt Above.
Towns governed themselves democratically, with all the adults gathering to discuss matters of import in each town’s council house. For Cherokee groups and individuals, the goal was integration and balance of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of living. Through pursuing duyuktv, “the right way,”- each Cherokee became “a real Person” or Ani-Yvwiya.
Hospitality…
Generosity was a cardinal virtue. Anyone hungry would be fed; anyone traveling would be housed. For the first 200 years of contact with Europeans coming through and into Cherokee lands, starting with the De Soto in 1540, the Cherokees extended hospitality to the newcomers, treating them as potential friends who clearly needed help.
The Cherokees also showed great curiosity, flexibility, and openness, readily adopting useful aspects of the newcomers’ culture, from peaches and watermelons to “talking leaves” as they called written language. The Cherokee genius who invented the Cherokee alphabet, Sequoyah, is the only known person to invent a written language without being literate in any language beforehand. In 1821, Sequoyah introduced his “syllabary” to the Cherokee National Council. Within months, the Cherokee nation became literate.
… and betrayal
Perhaps more than any other major Native American Tribe, the Cherokees proved themselves to be neighborly, industrious, and open to outside ideas. But the onrushing settlers and, ultimately, the U.S. Government did not want Cherokee neighbors – only Cherokee land. In 1838, this pressure culminated in the tragic Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokee in the East to Oklahoma. One quarter to half of the 16,000 Cherokee who began the long march died of exposure, disease, and the shock of exile.
Rebirth despite All
In spite of all efforts to dispossess the Cherokee of their ancestral home, today more than 12,000 Cherokee – the Eastern band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) – live in North Carolina. They descend from a small number of early landowners, from those who hid in the hills, defying Removal, and from those who returned, many on foot. They have created a unique society, a sovereign nation of 100 square miles, called the Qualla boundary, where timeless ways and wisdom blend with openness to the world at large. Come to Cherokee. We welcome your discovery of the ancient, proud, and vibrant culture right in your backyard.
The Mother Tongue: once forbidden, now spoken by proud, composed toddlers
In 1879 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Captain R. H. Pratt opened the first Native American boarding school to forcibly acculturate Indians to mainstream white society. “Kill the Indian and save the Man,” Pratt said. Towards this goal, Indian Children throughout North America were taken from their homes and families, given “white” names, wardrobes, and haircuts, and forbidden to speak any language but English.
The Cherokee Boarding School, founded in 1880, likewise maintained an English-only policy until 1933, with devastating effect on Cherokee fluency. Now, however, thanks to a Language Initiative grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, programs to foster the Cherokee language are spreading through Qualla Boundary and beyond.
For instance, in three classrooms at the Tribal Child Care Center, children ranging from infants to three year-olds hear and speak only Cherokee, learning English from their families and the broader environment. Studies find that children who are fluent in both their Mother Tongue and the mainstream language perform better academically than their monolingual peers, plans are afoot to extend The Cherokee Immersion program through the fifth grade. The preschool students now in the program have already distinguished themselves as the most dignified, respectful, and attentive children among their age – mates on the boundary.
“Cherokee speakers have a different way of carrying themselves,” notes one Immersion teacher, “and this communicates itself to and through these children.”
Older students and adults on the Boundary are also eager to improve their Cherokee, but with most fluent speakers over the age of 50 and numbers dying every year, there are not enough teachers. To address this, the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program is developing Cherokee-language video podcasts and interactive online Cherokee Classes, promoting a venerable language with cutting-edge technology. Meanwhile, nearby Western Carolina University is developing a Cherokee Language Academy. Staff members will develop Cherokee Language courses and Certification programs, recruit students to become language teachers, and create a Kituwah Teaching Fellows Program.
Interview notes as transcribed by Dylan Smythe
At the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, we recorded an interview with Eddie Swimmer, who workds at the box office at the museum.
Dylan Smythe transcribed some of the conversation.
This is what he learned:
o Belief: when man started hunting animals, the animals were all about revenge, so they declared that for every animal killed a disease would be released. then plants declared that for every disease released, a cure would be found
o Cherokee medicine was slow working, but effective to most illnesses and cuts.
o Medical treatment was thought as bad magic and people tried to steer clear of it.
o Plant god: Adowahe(ado-wha-hee)
o The represenitive of the Cherokee had to be democratic.
o British were the first to start scalping Indians then the Indians adapted to it.
o Cfr = code of federal regulations
The Cherokee are the only federally recognized tribe in NC.
Dylan Smythe transcribed some of the conversation.
This is what he learned:
o Belief: when man started hunting animals, the animals were all about revenge, so they declared that for every animal killed a disease would be released. then plants declared that for every disease released, a cure would be found
o Cherokee medicine was slow working, but effective to most illnesses and cuts.
o Medical treatment was thought as bad magic and people tried to steer clear of it.
o Plant god: Adowahe(ado-wha-hee)
o The represenitive of the Cherokee had to be democratic.
o British were the first to start scalping Indians then the Indians adapted to it.
o Cfr = code of federal regulations
The Cherokee are the only federally recognized tribe in NC.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Museum of The Cherokee Indian Interviews
Cherokee Government By EJ Kornhauser
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Government is unique because of its status as a Federal Trust Indian Reservation. For over 100 years the Eastern Band was recognized as a unit of government separate from the larger group of Cherokee people known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Although a trust relationship is maintained with the Federal Government, the Tribal Government has more self-governing authority and is extremely conscious of developing and maintaining their powers, which at one point were at risk.
The Tribal Government works in the way in which they rely heavily on revenues such as: A levy tax on all items sold on the Reservation, federal grant programs, contracts and Tribal Enterprises. The Eastern Band’s Gaming Industry first began in 1988 with bingo - a casino then opened in 1997. Profits from the casino are divided 50/50 between the Tribal Government and its enrolled members. Payments to children are held in a trust fund. If they complete high school, they receive payment when then turn 18 years of age.
Gaming is monitored through a pact between the tribe and the Governor of North Carolina. The Tribal Government consists of a Tribal Council (legislative branch), Principle Chief, Vice Chief, and Executive Advisor (executive branch), a Chief Justice and Magistrates (judicial branch.) The Principle Chief and the Vice Chief are elected at large for four-year terms. Federal crimes committed on tribal land fall under the jurisdiction of U.S Marshals, and cases are tried in federal court in Bryson City.
By right, sovereign governments define who its citizen-members are. In the United States, Native American tribes, as sovereign nations, set their own requirements and parameters for membership. In a sense, many Native Americans possess something akin to dual citizenship. They are citizens of the United States, a sovereign nation, and also members of their respective tribes, also sovereign nations. Much like American citizens, Cherokees run an efficient and sturdy government, which thrives, on the economy to support their small community.
For more information see: Native Americans - Cherokee
Sources of information included Readings from Cherokee Lesson Plans made by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian of Cherokee, North Carolina.
http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/
and http://www.nativeamericans.com/Cherokee.htm
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Government is unique because of its status as a Federal Trust Indian Reservation. For over 100 years the Eastern Band was recognized as a unit of government separate from the larger group of Cherokee people known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Although a trust relationship is maintained with the Federal Government, the Tribal Government has more self-governing authority and is extremely conscious of developing and maintaining their powers, which at one point were at risk.
The Tribal Government works in the way in which they rely heavily on revenues such as: A levy tax on all items sold on the Reservation, federal grant programs, contracts and Tribal Enterprises. The Eastern Band’s Gaming Industry first began in 1988 with bingo - a casino then opened in 1997. Profits from the casino are divided 50/50 between the Tribal Government and its enrolled members. Payments to children are held in a trust fund. If they complete high school, they receive payment when then turn 18 years of age.
Gaming is monitored through a pact between the tribe and the Governor of North Carolina. The Tribal Government consists of a Tribal Council (legislative branch), Principle Chief, Vice Chief, and Executive Advisor (executive branch), a Chief Justice and Magistrates (judicial branch.) The Principle Chief and the Vice Chief are elected at large for four-year terms. Federal crimes committed on tribal land fall under the jurisdiction of U.S Marshals, and cases are tried in federal court in Bryson City.
By right, sovereign governments define who its citizen-members are. In the United States, Native American tribes, as sovereign nations, set their own requirements and parameters for membership. In a sense, many Native Americans possess something akin to dual citizenship. They are citizens of the United States, a sovereign nation, and also members of their respective tribes, also sovereign nations. Much like American citizens, Cherokees run an efficient and sturdy government, which thrives, on the economy to support their small community.
For more information see: Native Americans - Cherokee
Sources of information included Readings from Cherokee Lesson Plans made by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian of Cherokee, North Carolina.
http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/
and http://www.nativeamericans.com/Cherokee.htm
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