Tricksters. Myths of the Cherokee

Wrapping up this week of Cherokee tricksters, I need to include two older books by anthropologists which can help to understand Cherokee stories as they were being told a hundred years ago and more, along with stories from the other peoples of the southeastern United States. These books have their failings, as all the older anthropological books do (for an insightful critique, see the comments about Mooney's work in yesterday's book, Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees). but if you keep that context in mind, there is still much of value to be found here!

The first book is James Mooney's monumental Myths of the Cherokee, published in 1900.

Mooney worked for years with the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina and with Cherokee people in Oklahoma. As Mooney learned Cherokee, he also relied on Will West Long for translation; their work together began in 1897. You can read more about Will West Long and about James Mooney at Wikipedia. 

This book contains over 100 Cherokee stories, including many about the trickster rabbit; you can use the Internet Archive to search the text for all the rabbits:

George Scheer, a North Carolina writer, later published a selection of the stories in Mooney's book intended for children: Cherokee Animal Tales, adding a detailed introduction about the history of the Cherokee. 

The illustrations are by Robert Frankenberg; here are Rabbit and Possum going courting:

Meanwhile, another anthropologist, John R. Swanton, was collecting stories from the peoples of the southeastern United States, who also told stories about the rabbit trickster. Swanton was Mooney's slightly younger contemporary, and he published this book in 1929 (which means it will soon be entering the public domain!): Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians.

You can read more about John Swanton and his work at Wikipedia.

This book also abounds in rabbit stories, as you can see:

The stories come from Creek, Hitchiti, Koasati, and Natchez storytellers, with many variations on the same story appearing throughout the collection, with tables in the back of the book analyzing some of the correspondences.

In addition to the stories here, there are additional animal stories which Swanton published in the Journal of American Folklore: "Animal Stories from the Indians of the Muskhogean Stock" which you can also find at the Internet Archive.

So much to read and learn from... thanks to the Archive!

Myths of the Cherokee

by James Mooney

Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians

by John R. Swanton

Tricksters. Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees

Carrying on with this week of Cherokee trickster stories, I want to feature this beautiful collection by this Cherokee husband-and-wife team, Anna and Jack Kilpatrick: Friends of Thunder: Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees:

This is a wonderful, wide-ranging collection of stories, which features lots of trickster Rabbit of course! And at the Internet Archive you can use the built-in search feature to find all the rabbits:

The book is organized into the following sections: Bird Stories, Animal Stories (where you will find Rabbit and others), Uk'ten' Stories, Tales of Monsters, The Little People, Tseg'sgin' Stories, Tales of Humor, Miscellaneous Stories, and Historical Sketches. There's also music for the stories that have songs in them, along with the Cherokee lyrics:

So, if the children's books from the past couple of days made you curious to find out what traditional Cherokee storytelling sounds like, this book is a great place to look!

Friends of Thunder:
Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees
Jack Kilpatrick and Anna Kilpatrick

Tricksters. Rabbit and the Well

As promised in yesterday's post, more beautiful Cherokee trickster books from Deborah Duvall with illustrations by the late, great Murv Jacob!

Rabbit and the Well

This is a beautiful example of the Cherokee version of the "tar baby" story that is also told all over the African Continent and throughout the African Diaspora. For more about the profound back-and-forth sharing of stories among African and Native storytellers in the southeastern United States, see this book: When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote. The animals in this story use a "tar wolf" to trap the Rabbit, who kept taking water from their well even though he refused to help do the work of digging it.

Rabbit and the Fingerbone Necklace

This is an eerie story about Rabbit and the magical Ravens, where Rabbit is in possession of something and, like any good trickster, he is wondering just how he can turn what he has into something of even greater value... and, like every trickster, he runs the risk of his greed causing him to lose it all. I won't spoil the ending of this story for you; you'll have to read the book and find out what happens in the end!

Rabbit Goes to Kansas

This book is the result of a creative project which Murv Jacob explains in the introduction to the book: building a "new mythology" for Kansas by weaving together facts from nature and from history along with traditional legends and practices, like the Cherokee ball-game. The central motif here is the Kansas jayhawk with its red and blue feathers... feathers that Rabbit wants to possess for himself. So, Rabbit goes to Kansas...

So, I hope you will take a look at some of these wonderful Rabbit books from today and yesterday, and I'll be back tomorrow with more Cherokee books from the Archive! 

Trickters. Duvall and Jacob's Rabbit

Yesterday, I wrote about the collaboration between Gayle Ross and Murv Jacob, and today I want to turn to the work that Murv Jacob did with Deborah Duvall (who was born and raised in Tahlequah, Oklahoma), specifically their books about the Cherokee trickster rabbit, Jistu (or Tsisdu). There are seven of these books at the Archive, so I'll feature four of them today, and then I'll be back tomorrow with three more. Plus there are more of their books not at the Archive, but those might show up at the Archive someday; you can see a complete list at WorldCat.

So, here are today's books:

How Rabbit Lost His Tail:
A Traditional Cherokee Legend

You can see Rabbit's beautiful bushy tail there on the cover of the book, but his rivalry with Otter is going to give us the Rabbit we know today, without a beautiful busy tail!

Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting:
A Traditional Cherokee Legend

This is another story about Rabbit's rivalry with Otter! (And if you are wondering, these are river otters; you can find out more at Wikipedia.)

The Opossum's Tale:
A Grandmother Story

Even though Rabbit is not in the title of the story, he is very much part of the plot; you can find more versions of this famous Cherokee story in the book I wrote about earlier this week: Living Stories of the Cherokee, edited by Barbara Duncan.

Rabbit Plants the Forest:
A Cherokee World Story

This story is about Rabbit and Saloli the Squirrel, and be sure to see Murv Jacob's note at the start of the book where he speculates about an ancient Cherokee origin for Wampus Cat stories. And, yes, Wampus Cat is part of this story, which is inspired by the animals of Cherokee storytelling tradition but which is not a traditional story. There's also a lovely key at the back of the book to all the illustrations of the plants and animals in this story:

And like I said, I'll be back tomorrow with more from Duvall and Jacob! Enjoy!

Tricksters. How Rabbit Tricked Otter

After yesterday's post about contemporary Cherokee storytellers, I wanted to focus today on some books by Gayle Ross, a Cherokee storyteller (and descendant of John Ross), with illustrations by Murv Jacob, a Cherokee artist (I am sad to say that he recently passed away; more here about his life). Of course I want to start with their book of trickster stories: How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Trickster Stories.

This book is full of great stories: 15 trickster tales, with Rabbit causing all kinds of trouble. Look: Rabbit himself is presiding over this map of Cherokee lands which opens the book:

There's also an introductory note from Wilma Mankiller who says: "No stories are more important in the Cherokee oral tradition than the stories of Rabbit, the trickster-hero. Gayle Ross and Murv Jacob have contributed greatly to the preservation of the stories of Rabbit by creating this wonderful collection of stories and illustrations."

There are two other books by Ross and Jacob that you can find at the Internet Archive also: 

How Turtle's Back Was Cracked:
A Traditional Cherokee Tale

The Legend of the Windigo:
A Tale from Native North America

Plus you might remember Murv Jacob from a beautiful Joseph Bruchac book I wrote about here a while ago: The Boy Who Lived with the Bears, and Other Iroquois Stories. (Trickster rabbit appears in that book too!)

So many stories to read and enjoy, and so many beautiful illustrations!

How Rabbit Tricked Otter
and Other Cherokee Trickster Stories

Tricksters. Living Stories of the Cherokee

Last week was dedicated the Anansi, the trickster spider of Africa and the African Diaspora, and for this week, I've decided to take a different approach, focusing on a specific storytelling tradition. Since I had just watched a brilliant documentary about the history of the Cherokee in America, I decided to work on Cherokee stories this week, and I was so pleased to see that the Internet Archive has this really excellent resource: Living Stories of the Cherokee, edited by Barbara Duncan:

The book features stories by the following Cherokee storytellers: Davey Arch, Robert Bushyhead, Edna Chekelelee, Marie Junaluska, Kathi Smith Littlejohn, and Freeman Owle. 

The book is organized into sections dedicated to each of those storytellers, and you will find all kinds of stories here. That means this book can give people a way to see the wonderful trickster stories of the Cherokee in a larger context, and there are sometimes multiple versions of the same story told by these different storytellers, like the story of how Possum lost his tail... and in some versions of that story, the trickster Rabbit is very much part of the plot against Possum, although sometimes it is the Fox who plays that role instead. The Turtle is also a trickster in some Cherokee stories, as you can see in the story of the Beaver's race with the Turtle; it is not "slow and steady wins the race" for this trickster Turtle, but that's all I'm going to say (spoilers!).

So, as the week goes by I will focus specifically on trickster stories from the Cherokee tradition, but I wanted to start the week off with this great book about Cherokee storytelling in general since I was so excited to see that this great book is available at the Internet Archive, just a click away. Enjoy!

Living Stories of the Cherokee

edited by Barbara Duncan