History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees

by James Mooney, George Ellison

Originally published as two separate volumes by the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, James Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees has enduring significance for both Native Americans and non-Indian people. The book contains the full texts of James Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee (1900) and The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891), with an exclusive biographical introduction by George Ellison, James Mooney and the Eastern Cherokees. Mooney's exhaustive research preserved essential Cherokee history, lore, and rituals in a time when such knowledge was dying because younger Cherokees were accepting Western education, commerce, and medicine. The first section of this text covers Cherokee history from the time of DeSoto's search for gold in the 1600s to the late 1800s when the tribal consciousness nearly came to an end. The second section reveals the rich Cherokee mythology, detailing how the earth was made, how all "people" (both two-and four-footed) came about, and how they could all converse with each other. The third section of the book provides 28 sacred formulas from a mass of over 600 prayers, formulas, and songs. These formulas are centered on such things as medicine, hunting, love, finding lost articles, and frightening away storms. Exclusive to this edition, George Ellison's biographical portrait of James Mooney emphasizes the ethnologist's timeliness and his empathy for the Cherokees and their rich heritage. Completing this book are photographs of many of the chiefs and shamans, a glossary of terms, an index, and an immense section on notes and parallels to the Cherokee myths.

Genres: History, Native American, Nonfiction, Mythology, Indigenous, Native Americans, Religion

768 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

James Mooney (James^Mooney) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. He did major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as those on the Great Plains. His most notable works were his ethnographic studies of the Ghost Dance after Sitting Bull's death in 1890, a widespread 19th-century religious movement among various Native American culture groups, and the Cherokee: The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891), and Myths of the Cherokee (1900), all published by the US Bureau of American Ethnology. Artifacts from Mooney are in the collections of the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History. Papers and photographs from Mooney are in the collections of the National Anthropological Archives, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution

Reviews

[Nikki]

This book has been criticized throughout many Cherokee Communities. Mooney was widely disliked by traditional Cherokees who had little interest in sharing our stories with him so he went to children in many cases and attempted to bribe them with candy and trinkets. Some Elders say the other stories were simply made up by himself and others. Unfortunately as the years have gone by due to acculturation, many Cherokee's have accepted this book as Gospel and have begun to incorporate its stories and cultural observations as fact.

[SDAntoNia]

I found Mooney, though sympathetic, to be patronizing and insulting toward the Cherokee, at least in his outlook. While he was 'progressive' for the time, reading the book was difficult, as one must sort the fact of Cherokee belief from Mooney's sometimes infuriating commentary.
Shira Destinie
MEOW Date Monday, April 23, 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era)

[James]

When I bought this, I was really looking forward to reading more of the legends and history of the Cherokee. But I was very let down by what I read. Not because of the legends, but mostly due to the time when the book was written and the information compiled.
It's very clear that James Mooney was a racist and bigot. He very clearly insinuates that what he was attempting to do was "save the lost culture of the savages" despite the fact that he spends a lot of time lumping what he considered "inferior" races such as Native Americans, Black and Asians into the same category while lauding White Europeans as "saving" the Native Americans by their mere presence. (I lost count of how many times he used the term savages when referring to Native Americans or Blacks.) He also never referred to them as being the original inhabitants of North America. Just Indians, Savages, aborginals or other terms that are generally considered insulting towards their races.
He also had a very distinct attitude towards all women as being unworthy of anything but the merest of mention as being capable of fighting and usually relegated them only to being servants with maybe two or three admissions of women being capable of being part of war or holding positions of leadership of any kind. Most of writings only focus on women as far as menstruation and child bearing.

In the Sacred Formulas portion of this book, he even goes as far as to say that the Cherokee and other tribes were almost entirely uneducated, did not have anything approaching a written language, did not have their own spoken languages and "there is nothing to show that he (Native Americans) had any idea whatsoever of what is called morality in the abstract." Then he goes on to brag about how he tricked and lied to Cherokee shamans to copy down and steal any copies that they had of their previous knowledge so that it could be "stored" at facilities that they would not be given access to for generations. All the while continuing to insult their intelligence and further his own material gain and increase his own prestige.

Again, I'll grant that it's a product of it's time and he probably wasn't even the worst of the people at the time. But he was no hero and certainly not someone to be revered as some people need to. He's just another example of a long ago time before a lot of human beings were considered capable of being respected and treated as human beings.

[Denise]

4.5 stars. Excellent resource about Cherokee history, culture, beliefs!!

[Charles]

This work is the definitive English written volume of the myths and legends of the Cherokee people and their study. A huge plus is James Mooney tellings of theses classic tales are good, I re-read them often.

[Sara Sams]

Best Valentines' Day present ever.

[Tina]

This is not only a classic, but I find it the best resource for the study of the Cherokees.

[Courtney Miller]

There is no better resource for the study of the Cherokee, their myths, medicine, and culture.