T his is what I was told about the ancient people. It is a story of beautiful strength and magical power told to me by Ada Gugu- Clay Bottle.
Soon after the mud from the bottom of the sea rose to the surface and
dried to become land, the Cherokees settled on this new place. In the beginning, there
were seven principal villages, each one was encircled to keep out strangers. In the center
of each village was a tall cone-shaped building that housed the strength of the Cherokee
people; the Blue Light.
The Blue Light bathed the interior of the temple with waves of cool light and the Cherokee elders swam in its knowledge and strength. It gave them special powers. They could speak without using their lips, only their thoughts. They could fly freely inside the temple, drifting from the floor to the ceiling effortlessly. It was a time of peace and exploration for the Cherokees. It was a time of euphoria.
One day an elder from the North came into the principal Cherokee
village. There he told the elders of a dream he had. In his dream, the flight of the
temple dwellers ended and they crashed to the ground. Strangers came and entered the
village, destroying the temple and dispersing the Blue Light into the night sky. This
would lead the Cherokees on a search for the Blue Light, far away beyond the sky vault. In
time, the Blue Light would only become a story, nearly forgotten and told only by the old
people. But, it must still be told. One day a speaker would come to restore the Blue Light
to Ani-yvwiya; the People.
A strange New Life burned on an island in the middle of the Tennessee
River. Old Woman Spider sat at the water's edge and shaped a bowl out of mud to bring this
New Life back to THE PEOPLE or Ani-Yvwiya. She placed the newly formed bowl on her back
and went into the river. Jumping across from crest to crest, she made her way to the
island called Ha-Wa-Si. There a tree stump was burning, caught fire from the fury of the
Lightning Brothers. She placed a burning coal into the mud bowl and brought it back across
the river for the Man and Animal tribes. From that first fire and the wet earth came the
first piece of pottery.
According to legend; Dreamcatchers were originally hung over the baby's cradle.
Dreams are cessages from the sprit world. The good spirit dreams, being smart,
will find their way through the center hole and float down the sacred feathers onto
the sleeping one. The bad spirit dreams, being stupid, will get caught in the web
and disappear with the morning light. Dreamcatchers are believed to bestow pleasant
dreams, good luck, and lifetime harmony.
