Book Name:

Myths of the Cherokee

On the north bank of Little Tennessee river, in a bend below the mouth of Citico creek, in Blount county, Tennessee, is a high cliff hanging over the water, and about half way up the face of the rock is a cave with two openings. The rock projects outward above the cave, so that the mouth can not be seen from above, and it seems impossible to reach the cave either from above or below. There are white streaks in the rock from the cave down to the water. The Cherokee call it Tlä'nuwâ'ï, "the place of the Tlä'nuwä," or great mythic hawk.

In the old time, away back soon after the creation, a pair of Tlä'nuwäs had their nest in this cave. The streaks in the rock were made by the droppings from the nest. They were immense birds, larger than any that live now, and very strong and savage. They were forever flying up and down the river, and used to come into the settlements and carry off dogs and even young children playing near the houses. No one could reach the nest to kill them, and when the people tried to shoot them the arrows only glanced off and were seized and carried away in the talons of the Tlä'nuwäs.

At last the people went to a great medicine man, who promised to help them. Some were afraid that if he failed to kill the Tlä'nuwäs they would take revenge on the people, but the medicine man said he could fix that. He made a long rope of linn bark, just as the Cherokee still do, with loops in it for his feet, and had the people let him down from the top of the cliff at a time when he knew that the old birds were away. When he came opposite the month of the cave he still could not reach it, because the rock above hung over, so he swung himself backward and forward several times until the rope swung near enough for him to pull himself into the cave with a hooked stick that he carried, which he managed to fasten in some bushes growing at the entrance. In the nest he found four young ones, and on the floor of the cave were the bones of all sorts of animals that had been carried there by the hawks. He pulled the young ones out of the nest and threw them over the cliff into the deep water below, where a great Uktena serpent that lived there finished them. Just then he saw the two old ones coming, and had hardly time to climb up again to the top of the rock before they reached the nest.

When they found the nest empty they were furious, and circled round and round in the air until they saw the snake put up its head from the water. Then they darted straight downward, and while one seized the snake in his talons and flew far up in the sky with it, his mate struck at it and bit off piece after piece until nothing was left. They were so high up that when the pieces fell they made holes in the rock, which are still to be seen there, at the place which we call "Where the Tlä'nuwä cut it up," opposite the mouth of Citico. Then the two Tlä'nuwäs circled up and up until they went out of sight, and they have never been seen since.

Comments:

This story was obtained first from John Ax and Ta′gwadihi′, and was afterward heard of frequently in connection with the cave at Citico. It is mentioned by Ten Kate in “Legends of the Cherokees,” obtained in the Indian Territory, in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, January, 1889.

Tlă′nuwă – The Tlă′nuwă (Tsă′nuwă or Sû′năwă in the Middle dialect) is a mythic bird, described as a great hawk, larger than any bird now existing. There is a small hawk called tlă′nuwă usdi′, “little tlă′nuwă,” which is described as its smaller counterpart or image, and which the Cherokee say accompanies flocks of wild pigeons, occasionally when hungry swooping down and killing one by striking it with its sharp breast bone. It is probably the goshawk (Astur atricapillus). The great Tlă′nuwă, like the other animals, “went up.” According to Adair (History of the American Indians, p. 17) the Cherokee used to compare a miserly person to a “sinnawah.” When John Ax first recited the story he insisted that the whites must also believe it, as they had it pictured on their money, and holding up a silver coin, he triumphantly pointed out what he claimed was the figure of the Tlă′nuwă, holding in its talons the arrows and in its beak the serpent. He was not so far wrong, as it is well known that the Mexican coat of arms, stamped upon the coins of the republic, has its origin in a similar legend handed down from the Aztec. Myths of dangerous monster serpents destroyed by great birds were common to a number of tribes. The Tuscarora, formerly eastern neighbors of the Cherokee, told “a long tale of a great rattlesnake, which, a great while ago, lived by a creek in that river, which was Neus, and that it killed abundance of Indians; but at last a bald eagle killed it, and they were rid of a serpent that used to devour whole canoes full of Indians at a time” (Lawson, Carolina, p. 346).

Tlă′nuwă′ĭ – “Tlă′nuwă place,” the cliff so called by the Cherokee, with the cave half way up its face, is on the north bank of Little Tennessee river, a short distance below the entrance of the Citico creek, on land formerly belonging to Colonel John Lowrey, one of the Cherokee officers at the battle of the Horseshoe bend (Wafford). Just above, but on the opposite side of the river, is Uʻtlûñti′yĭ, the former haunt of the cannibal liver eater (see number 66, “Uʻtlûñta, the Spear-finger”).

Soon after the creation – As John Ax put it, adopting the Bible expression, Hĭlahi′yu dine′tlănă a′nigwa – “A long time ago the creation soon after.”

Rope of linn bark – The old Cherokee still do most of their tying and packing with ropes twisted from the inner bark of trees. In one version of the story the medicine-man uses a long udâ′ĭ or cohosh (Actæa?) vine.

Holes are still there – The place which the Cherokee call Tlă′nuwă-a′tsiyelûñisûñ′yĭ, “Where the Tlă′nuwă cut it up,” is nearly opposite Citico, on Little Tennessee river, just below Talassee ford, in Blount county, Tennessee. The surface of the rock bears a series of long trenchlike depressions, extending some distance, which, according to the Indians, are the marks where the pieces bitten from the body of the great serpent were dropt by the Tlă′nuwă.

Abstract: