Week 9 Reading Diary, Continued: Myths of the Cherokee

As I continued my reading diary for this week, I decided to switch gears and read stories from the Myths of the Cherokees. The stories are all told by James Mooney and they are based on the stories told in the Cherokee tribe long ago. I found all of the stories to be very interesting, but below are a couple of the ones I found to be the best.

The First Fire: I found it very interesting to see the beginning of fire from an animal’s point of view. This story told their first reactions, what they made of it, and how they felt about it. It said one day the fire was sent down by lightening and that the animals sent a council of animals to go check it out. I would be interested to learn more about the council. No one was brave enough to bring back fire because they were all scared of the flame. I thought it was surprising the the water spider ended up being the hero in the story.

(owl)

The Owl Gets Married: I particularly liked this story because it went along with my readings from Tuesday, Native American Marriages. Once again it is a human marrying an animal. In this story it is a young woman finding love with an owl. The owl was the only suitor who was a good enough hunter to please the young girls mother. Overall, I think it was a very interesting story and showed a lot about the Cherokee culture.