Zoro's Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods

Cherokee

CHEROKEE Far away from the main-traveled road of modern progress, the Cherokee priest still treasures the legends and repeats the mystic rituals handed down from his ancestors. It is among these Kitu'hwa elders that the ancient things have been preserved. JAMES MOONEY Myths and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee What Is Sacred hen visiting Cherokee people I have come to know over on the Qualla Boundary, as well as Snowbird Cherokee whom I know going back to my boyhood in Graham County, IVe taken time to listen intently and have learned a lot about people, their cultures, and how one goes about living in the natural world. The Cherokee and the Scots-Irishsettlers have dwelled side by side here in these mountains for generations, and while being similar in that both embrace clanlike social systems,pagan spiritual beliefs, and a fiercely independent self-sufficiency, they differ noticeably in perspective, mind-set, and attitude. IVe found that the descendants of Europeans are more pragmatic and linear in their thinking about life and the world around them, while the Cherokee are more holistic, using cyclical-circular constructs asmetaphorical or symbolicmodels to illustrate their spiritual beliefs and social practices. The white folk tend to think of the land and life around them as something that has been placed there specifically for their personal use—theirs for the taking—a skewed view of independence stemming from outdated European thought constructs and from their Protestant religions' self-serving interpretations of the Bible. The Cherokee, in contrast, tend to see themselves as part of a larger whole that includes all forms of life. When viewed from this more animistic perspective,life and all life-forms inherently demand respect, even reverence. Contrary to the Christian beliefs of the mountaineers who see the land and what lives on it as merely convenient fodder for their sense of manifest destiny, the traditional 139 w VC/her Cherokee worship the life that surrounds them and sustains them. A profound disparity exists between these two paradigms, which have been at odds with each other since the first Europeanslanded on this continent. The disparity and conflict continue to this day, the gap ever widening with population growth and with increasing emphasis on personal material wealth and free-market capitalism. The traditional Native American peoples have believed for thousands of yearsthat the earth itself issacred,a gift from, and acovenant with, the Creator. Would we here in the heart of the Bible Belt dare to curse in or to desecrate in any way our houses of worship? If not, why then would we show less respect for the earth itself? The earth which gives us our sustenance, our life, without which we could not and would not exist? In my garden here in Zoro's field I try to perform my work with a sense of reverence. I am grateful for the blessing of rich loamy soil and of clean water nearby. I grow my crops organically without the easy assisting chemicals—pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. I do this out of respect for myself, for my own health, and for the well-being of the land—that others who come after me maybenefit from my labors by inheriting a place from which they too may harvest healthy food. It has taken me a long while to begin replacing European utilitarian ideas of dominance, division, and manifest destiny with the more harmonious values of my Cherokee neighbors, who see things interdependently and from a holistic perspective of sustainability. But I'm making progress. IVe still got a way to go, I know, as I work toward seeing the bigger picture that comes so easilyto my Cherokee friends, who tell me that we are all related and that everything is sacred. Sacred Sites During the past three years, I have on occasion snuck out of my hermit 's hideaway and made my way west into the deeper mountains to spend time with certain elder Cherokee traditionalists and traditionalist -activists. During recent visits there has been talk of starting a project to identify and protect NativeAmericansacred sites. In conjunction with these discussions I have sometimes been taken (hav140 | ZORO'S FIELD ing promised not to violate confidence) to these sites, which were to the uninitiated eyejust places in the woods. Thereby have I spent time in places that exude a numinous energy or exhibit a personality of presiding divinity that is not...