Plant Lore of the Cherokee
From the beginning the Cherokee have been an agricultural people, and their old country is still a region of luxuriant flora. Within the Smokies alone there are more than 1,300 species of flowering plants, of which 131 represent native trees – a greater number than is to be found in all of Europe. Among the non-flowering plants there are about 50 ferns and fern allies, 330 mosses and liverworts, 230 lichens and 1,800 fungi.
Being close observers, the Cherokee tagged the wild growing plants with names that are peculiarly fitting. Thus the mistletoe, which never grows alone but is found always with its roots fixed in the bark of some supporting tree from which it draws is sustenance, is called Udali, a name that signifies “it is married.”
The violet is called by a plural name, Dindaskwateski, meaning “they pull each other’s heads off,” showing that the Cherokee children discovered a game not unknown among their settler counterparts. This is a game where the heads of the violets are interlocked and pulled apart by the stems.
Bear-grass, with its long, slender leaves like diminutive blades of corn, is called Salikwayi, which in Cherokee is to say “green snake”. The larger grass known as Job’s tears, because of its glossy, rounded grains, which Indian children used for necklaces, is called Selutsi, “the mother of corn”. To the Cherokee, the black-eyed Susan was called Awaikta or “deer eye”, and the Lady Slipper was their “partridge moccasin”. The May apple, with its umbrella shaped top, was called Uniskwetugi, meaning “it wears a hat”. The white puffball fungus Nakwisiusdi, “the little star,” and the common rock lichen bears the musical, if rather un-poetic, name of Utsaleta, “pot scrapings.”
Some plants were named from their real or supposed place in the animal world. For example, the wild rose which the Cherokee called Tsistunigisti, “the rabbits eat it”, referring to the seed berries, and the shield fern, Yanutsestu, “the bear lies on it”.
Other plants were named for their domestic or ceremonial uses. The fleabane was called “fire-maker”, because of its dried stalk once was used in producing fire by friction. The bugle weed was known as Aniwaniski, which is to say “talkers” because the chewed root, given to children to swallow or rubbed upon the lips, was supposed to endow them with the gift of eloquence.
Some few, in addition to the ordinary term used amount the common people, have a sacred or symbolic name that was used only by the priests and the medicine men in prayer. Thus ginseng, or “sang” as it more often called by white mountaineers, is known to the laymen as Ataliguli, “the mountain climber” but is addressed in the Cherokee sacred prayers as Yunwi Usdi, “Little Man”. And Selu, which is to say “corn”, is invoked under the name Agawela, “The Old Woman.”
The cedar tree was held sacred above all other trees. The reasons for this reverence are easily found in the cedars ever living green, in its balsamic fragrance, and in the beautiful color of its fine grained wood that will not warp or decay. In the old rituals, the medicine men threw the small green twigs of the cedar on the fire as incense in certain ceremonies, particularly to counteract dreams in which ghosts appeared. The Cherokee believed malevolent ghosts could not endure the smell. Environmental sound, the Cherokee believed the wood itself was too sacred to burn as fuel. According to the myth, the red color of cedar came originally from the blood of a wicked magician whose severed head was hung at the top of a tall cedar.
Tribal elders looked upon the linn or basswood tree as a protector against lightning during a storm, insisting that this tree never is stuck by lightning. The Cherokee were cautioned by their medicine men never to burn sourwood. They said lye made from its ashes would bring sickness to those using it in preparing their food.
Laurel was never burned, either, as it was believed its use as fuel would bring on cold weather. The reason given was that the leaves, when burning, make a hissing sound suggestive of winter winds and falling snow. A fire of post oak and the wood of the wild grape, however, was believed to be a sure way of bringing on a spell of warm weather even in the coldest winter season.
The Cherokee attached mysterious properties to the wood of a tree that had been struck by lightning, especially when the tree itself still lived. But only the shaman or medicine man would handle such wood. The layman refused to touch it, for fear of having cracks come upon his hands and feet.
Historically, in preparing players for a game of stick ball, the medicine man burned splinters from a lightning struck tree into a charcoal and gave it to them to paint themselves with so they might be able to strike their opponents with all the force of a thunderbolt.
Back or wood from a tree struck by lightning, but still green, was beaten up and put into the water in which seeds were soaked before planting so as to insure a good crop. On the other hand, any lightning struck wood thrown into field would cause the crop to wither, and it was believed to have a bad effect even to go into the field immediately after having been near such a tree.
Superstition? Perhaps. But, then, it is all part of Cherokee plant lore.