An artists illustration of the Emerald Mound Site, (22 AD 504), a Plaquemine culture mound site in Adams County, Mississippi inhabited from 1200 to 1700 CE. Illustrated by Herb Roe 2011. I’m not sure when the Natchez people first came to call themselves the Natchez, but they are undoubtedly descendents of what archaeologists call the Mississippian culture. The ancestors of the Natchez probably lived continuously in the Southeastern part of North America from around 9500 B.C.

The ancient Cherokee’s connection to the “Bird Tribes” is fascinating and we are so fortunate that the elders and medicine men shared their stories with James Mooney in the 1870’s. Here is the continuing account from his book, Myths of the Cherokee. The raven (kâ’länû) is occasionally seen in the mountains, but is not prominent in folk belief, excepting in connection with the grewsome tales of the Raven Mocker (q. v.). In former times its name was sometimes assumed as a war

The sky is the flyway of the bird, whose freedom is to light and go at will … . When evening shadows fall upon the earth and a lone jet cuts the puffy clouds with straight lines, it does not bother the birds. They chirp and murmur night sounds and settle down to sleep. We forget and think we are all there is. –Joyce Sequichie Hifler (A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume 2) This morning (Monday, May 11, 2015) while I brushed the snow off our solar panels, my best friend Näkwïsï

Spring is here and with the month of May comes the season for weddings! The ancient Cherokee told a funny story about the devious rabbit and the lazy possum who decide to team up to find wives. In most of the stories involving the rabbit, the Cherokee portrayed them as clever, devious, and the penultimate trickster. The Cherokee rabbit fables are so similar to the “Uncle Remus” and “Brer Rabbit” fables, that I think they must be connected. [refer to my article: Tar Baby vs