by John D. Loftin
(Journal of Cherokee Studies Vol
VIII, No 1)
Much is known about the traditional religious orientation of the Cherokee who once inhabited parts of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Works by scholars such as Mooney, Speck, Hewatt, Gulick, Witthoft, and Hudson have taught us much about the religion of the Cherokees up until World War II. However, since then we have learned very little about the religion of the Eastern Cherokees who inhabit the Qualla Reservation of North Carolina.
From 1955-59, John Gulick, with the help of several colleagues from the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted a great deal of field research among the Eastern Cherokees. The result of that project was Cherokees at the Crossroads, a fine ethnological work published in 1960.
After presenting extensive demographic information, the work concentrated on the value table and cultural patterns of the most conservative of the Eastern Cherokees. The data collected on the Conservatives was then subjected to a variety of psychoanalytic, social psychological, and sociological interpretations. Finally, Reik's theory of "social masochism" was chosen as the paradigm which best fit the data gathered on the Conservatives.
Our project is different, though interrelated. We wish to offer an understanding of the data collected by Gulick in terms of a religious hermeneutic which we think will contribute to our total understanding of the Eastern Cherokee. In so doing we shall from time to time draw comparisons between the Conservative Cherokees and the Hopis, the latter being a Native American people who continue to embody many patterns of their aboriginal religious orientation.
According to Thomas, a Cherokee of the Western Band, the Conservative Eastern Cherokees are best understood in terms of the "Harmony Ethic," the pervasive value table that undergirds the orientation of the Conservatives. Gulick, drawing upon the research of Thomas, lists several aspects of the "Harmony Ethic," the most relevant of which are listed below:
1) Non-demonstrative emotionality-control of interpersonal aggression in the in-group.
2) A pattern of generosity that varies greatly in the extent to which it is a formalized social device without emotional depth.
3) Autonomy of the individual, linked with low socio-political dominance-submission hierarchies.
4) Ability to endure pain, hardships, hunger and frustration without external evidence of discomfort.
5) A positive valuation on bravery and courage.
6) A generalized fear of the world as dangerous and particularly a fear of witchcraft.
7) Attention to concrete realities rather than to abstract integration in terms of long-range goals.
8) Dependence on supernatural power which can be acquired through dreams.
While not denying the validity of Gulick's psychoanalytic interpretation of the above traits, we wish to demonstrate the importance of simultaneously understanding the above traits in terms of aboriginal Cherokee religious values. Our thesis is that the Conservatives' "Harmony Ethic," along with their continued use of the Cherokee language, the gathering of wild plants for medicinal purposes, the playing of Cherokee stickball, the hunting of game, farming, and the continuance of traditional birth customs, point to the traditional religious character of their mode of being.
Of course, it is true that Christianity is widespread among even the Conservatives today. However, we must realize that Christianity among the Conservatives is understood largely as being consonant with aboriginal Cherokee values. As Gulick points out, there is a great amount of compatibility between Christian baptism and the Cherokees' "going-to-water," both of which seek to spiritually purify and regenerate the participant. Also the Christian notions of Armageddon and the Last Judgment are commensurate with the Conservative self-image. Conservatives feel as though they are doomed to destruction eventually in the face of the dominant white society. In other words, it may be that the form of Christianity embodied by the Conservatives is as much as the adaptation of Christianity to the Cherokee as it is the adaptation of the Cherokee to Christianity. Such developments are, of course, known among other Native Americans, especially where many aboriginal traits were lost while coming to terms with the dominant society.
The above, for example, would help us to understand why Cherokees respond quite passively to the emotional proclamations put forth by many of their ministers. Gulick notes that wild releases of intense emotion are antithetical to aboriginal Cherokee social traits. We agree and add further that those traits are inextricably interrelated with aboriginal Cherokee religious structures, a point well known among scholars of Native Americans.
The "Harmony Ethic" of the Cherokees is summed up well by Thomas who notes that the Conservative, "tries to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships with his fellow Cherokee by avoiding giving offense on the negative side, and by giving of himself to his fellow Cherokee in regard to his time and his material goods on the positive side." Thomas also notes that Cherokees, in attempting to preserve the "Harmony Ethic," are slow to punish an obvious violator for two interrelated reasons. First, they feel as though the sacred (Thomas' omnipotent force) will punish the offender in due time. Secondly, Conservatives feel that the execution of punishment also violates the "Harmony Ethic," that is, "two wrongs do not make a right." Similar points could be made about the Hopi. The Hopi are very slow to aggressively resist actions which are clearly antithetical to the "Hopi way" for fear of evoking "bad thoughts." Keeping a "good heart" is of great religio-ecological importance for "good thoughts" align the Hopi with the "Mighty Something" in a harmonious and fruitful manner. Though we have no proof that the Conservative Cherokees embody similar understandings, we suspect they do.
In terms of the Conservatives' generosity, we think again that aboriginal religious values are manifested. Thomas notes that Cherokee generosity pertains especially to the sharing of food, a characteristic again found among the Hopi. The sharing of food, one of the most fundamental necessities of human existence, is a concrete demonstration of a "good heart" and is clearly consonant with the "Harmony Ethic."
On a related point, Gulick notes that, "the assertive individual is offensive in terms of the 'Harmony Ethic'. The above applies not only to aggressive behavior, but also to any form of drawing attention to oneself. Furthermore, it relates to the matter of Cherokee leadership and authority. Gulick notes that because Cherokees wish to decide important issues unanimously, that is, as a people, dissenters will simply refrain from a vote in order to prevent friction and self-assertion.
It is well known that the aboriginal Cherokees organized communal work parties based on the White noiety within each township.29 Today, as Gulick notes, the Cherokee Free Labor Company offers help to needy Cherokees in a structurally similar manner.
Conservative Cherokees also continue to emphasize the ability to endure sufferings without complaining and to be brave and courageous. As Thomas says, Cherokees endure pain because it is part of the world. Furthermore, the acceptance of suffering is commensurate with the "Harmony Ethic." Conservatives feel they should not concern themselves with their own pain. Similarly, bravery and courage refract one's lack of preoccupation with one's self and conversely, one's concern with helping one's fellow Cherokee.
The Conservatives continue to perceive witchcraft as a dangerous threat, though to what extent we cannot say with certainty. Clearly, however, witchcraft constitutes part of aboriginal Cherokee religion as it does for the Hopi and most other Native Americans. Gulick tries to account for the apparent conflict between fear of witchcraft and the "Harmony Ethic" by saying that the ethic is not perfect. However, we think the problem is more fundamentally related to Cherokee religion. Witchcraft accounts for those events in Cherokee life which the "Harmony Ethic" cannot. The "Harmony Ethic" presupposes a form of disorder to which it is contrasted and that realm of disorder is symbolized by witchcraft. Witchcraft is feared by the Conservatives because it can disrupt the order of the "Harmony Ethic." Among the Hopi, witchcraft is practiced by selfish, arrogant individuals who attempt to prolong their own lives through the destruction of others. The Hopi feel that all must be of "one heart and one breath" if their prayers are to bear fruit for their religion, like that of the Cherokees, stresses their identity as a people. If one witch aligns his heart against his people, be may ruin the effectiveness of their prayers and thus hurt them physically and spiritually. We have no direct evidence for such understanding among the Cherokee, but we do know that they describe the process of witchcraft by saying that "someone is having his mind different toward us." Cherokees, like Hopis, are reticent to discuss the phenomenon of witchcraft and hence we have little information concerning its status today.
Conservative Cherokees understand themselves more as "being oriented" than as "becoming oriented." That is to say, they feel that the world constitutes them more than they constitute the world. The Conservatives do not attempt to "better themselves" through ambitious, future-oriented self-assertion. To be a Conservative means to take one's proper place among that which is already the case, to follow the path set before one. Again we can draw parallels with the Hopi. Hence, the Cherokee attempt to come to terms with the world they perceive-their world-and in so doing they seek to be, not "better," but as they were in the Beginning.
In that sense, the Conservatives have retained their traditional perceptions of time which were based on an attempt to "reactualize" the "mythical time" of their Ancestors. The values inherent in the "Harmony Ethic" are aboriginal in character and thus afford contemporary Cherokees an important link with their Ancestors. By reactualizing values given to the Cherokee in the Beginning, Conservatives continue to experience transcendence from historical, sequential time." Though specific traits such as the clan system, the council house, the Warrior society, and various ceremonies have been lost over the years, the essence underlying those phenomena has been retained in many respects.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that the Eastern Cherokees continue to inhabit some of their aboriginal lands. The "intrinsic fondness for their mountain habitat" mentioned by Gulick is almost certainly related to the aboriginal understanding of their land as created by the sacred. Given the universal Native American perception of their land as sacred and situated at the "center of the universe," we can well understand the Cherokees' love of their land. For the Hopi, who like the Eastern Cherokee have retained a large part of their aboriginal land holdings, their world is perceived as a revelation of the sacred. It is not that the Hopi worship nature, for nature is not simply natural. The natural rhythms and forms of their world point beyond themselves to levels of ultimacy and transcendence. Their land, their life, and their religion are one. Surely the same can be said for the Conservative Eastern Cherokees. Though the Council house and its symbolism of the "center" is now lost, the Conservatives nonetheless perceive their land as more than simply land. In fact, their reverence for their land is revealed very nicely by Gulick's notion of their "being oriented." The sacred ecology of the Conservatives orients them in terms of their most fundamental values.
Gulick notes, however, that some of the traits held today by Conservatives have been adapted in the last sixty years and thus are not, as he puts it, truly "Indian." He even suggests that the Conservatives "perceive clearly what the truly Indian traits are" so that they can dispose of the adaptive traits, many of which tend to prevent their assimilation to the larger economic culture of the United States. Gulick, of course, does not offer any suggestions as to how the Cherokees are to participate in a necessarily competitive and aggressive market while simultaneously preserving the "Harmony Ethic." Perhaps the Conservatives will one day solve the above "problem," but perhaps they do not wish to do so. Perhaps the very resistance to assimilation which Gulick mentions as characterizing the adaptive traits is inseparably interrelated with the underlying values of the "Harmony Ethic." As for the "fact" that many Conservative traits are post-Contact in nature, we can only say that they are perceived as aboriginal in essence. The Cherokee "in fact" underwent many changes prior to contact with Western Europeans. However, according to their experience, all cultural patterns were given to them "in the beginning" long years ago, soon after the world was made. Eliade has demonstrated how various peoples experience historical adaptations as ahistorical within only a few generations. According to him, the formulation of the new phenomenon may be recent, but its content is archaic and refers to a sacred reality.
In our view, Conservative Cherokees are making an authentic religious response to the problems raised by their submission to a "dominant" society. Like the Ghost Dance and Peyote cults of North America, Conservative Cherokees are attempting to come to terms with modernity in a religious manner. On the one hand, Conservatives realize that many aspects of their aboriginal culture are lost forever and that they are subject to dominant society. On the other hand, they have retained some of their traditional lands and have not simply acquiesced to the external pressure of the United States to assimilate. Conservatives continue to consider themselves primarily as Cherokees, a perception intrinsically intertwined with religious values. As Landy said several years ago, ". . . it would seem more reasonable to label the behavior of the Big Cove people of today as a new overlay and synthesis rather than as either neurotic or warped."