In the Pheasant dance, part the Cherokee’s Green-corn dance, the instrument used is the drum, and the dancers beat the ground with their feet in limitation of the drumming sound made by the pheasant. They form two concentric circles, the men on the inside facing the women in the outer circle, each advancing and retreating at the signal of the drummer, who sits at one side and sings the Pheasant songs.

The story goes, there was once a winter famine among the birds and animals. No mast (fallen nuts) could be found in the woods and they were near starvation when a Pheasant discovered a holly tree, loaded with red berries, of which the Pheasant is said to be particularly fond. He called his companion birds and they formed a circle about the tree, singing, dancing, and drumming with their wings in token of their joy, thus we have the Pheasant dance.

The story goes, the Pheasant once saw a woman beating corn in a wooden mortar in front of the house. “I can do that, too,” said the Pheasant, but the women would not believe it, so the Pheasant went into the woods and got upon a hollow log and “drummed” with his wings as a pheasant does, until the people in the house heard him and thought he was really beating corn.