Cherokee Stories

These stories are from James Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. Mooney was an ethnologist that worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between 1887 and 1890 he did fieldwork with the Cherokee, mainly in North Carolina but also in Oklahoma. He published the results of his studies with the Cherokee in the 7th and 19th Annual Reports of the BAE.

Most of the material Mooney gathered was provided by elders in the Cherokee tribe who had acquired this knowledge from their elders in the traditional way, passing the information on from generation to generation. Follow the first link in the list below to learn about these elders.

The Storytellers

How The World Was Made

The First Fire

The Daughter of The Sun

The Moon and the Thunders

Origin of Strawberries

How They Brought Back The Tobacco

Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine

The Milky Way

What The Stars Are Like

The Great Yellow Jacket: Origin of Fish and Frogs

The Deluge

The Origin of Disease and Medicine

The Journey To The Sunrise

The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting

Why The Possum's Tail Is Bare

How the Wildcat Caught The Gobbler

How The Terrapin Beat The Rabbit

The Rabbit And The Tar Wolf

The Rabbit And The Possum After A Wife

The Rabbit Dines The Bear

The Rabbit Escapes From The Wolves

Flint Visits The Rabbit

How The Deer Got His Horns

Why The Deer's Teeth Are Blunt

What Became Of The Rabbit

Why The Mink Smells

Why The Mole Lives Underground

The Terrapin's Escape From The Wolves

Origin Of The Groundhog Dance : The Groundhog's Head

The Migration Of The Animals

The Wolf's Revenge - The Wolf and the Dog

The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals

How The Turkey Got His Beard

The Owl Gets Married

The Huhu Gets Married

The Uktena And The Ulunsuti

Aganunitsi's Search For The Uktena

The Red Man And The Uktena

More History Links

Suggested History Reading List