Spiritual Views and Traditions of the Cherokee
Red Bird, an old Cherokee (in 1835) used to say the Cherokees had a white
post set up near the council house, and on the top was fastened a white skin,
or piece of white cloth, to remind them to keep their hearts as white as that was,
and also to remind them of the commandments which were once given to their fathers,
and written on something white. This was done when he was a boy,
as he told his son, Situagei (the informant, Deer-in-the-water).
In ancient times, the Cherokees always had their places of worship near a river or creek,
or on the bank of a lake, or one the seashore.
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INFORMANT: Deer-in-the-water, or also known as Thomas Nutsawi
(Nutsawi was a full-blood, elder Cherokee raised by his uncle, a priest who offered
sacrifices of the town and performed the various duties of the priestly office.
Nutsawi was chosen by his uncle as a child and set apart as someone
to be specially trained - he received a traditional Cherokee religious
education, participated in ritual instructions, fasting, a dream quest,
and learned many of the intricacies of Cherokee ceremonialism.
He married a Cherokee woman and was the father of two sons.
When his wife died, he never remarried.
At the age of fifty, he was still an assistant to his uncle.
Nutsawi died rather suddenly in 1838, just before the Trail of Tears.)
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