The Cherokee through their festival season represent a group that reinforced monotheism among a people group that lived in the Americas and they have additional interest for me because of a rich cultural memory that was contained in their festival season. “Writing in 1701 William Bartman said of the Cherokee … were no by no means idolaters, …So far from idolatry were they that they had no religious images among them, or any idolatrous rights rite or ceremony that he could observe. Instead they adored the Great Spirit, whom they described as the giver and taker away of the breath of life, with the most profound and respectful homage.” Their festival season was a great source of religious observance and cultural memory but “the aged Plains holy men lament that because of white pressures, vital parts of their national ritual life were put aside in historic times, are now irretrievably lost, and the people have suffered greatly because of it”
Thomas Mails has captured what he can of this great culture and the Cherokee festivals through research of what source documents are available. “James Adair and Irish trader who lived among the Cherokees for forty years, decided the Indians were indeed one of the lost tribes of Israel…He used as evidence such topics as their festivals, feasts, and religious rites; their absolutions and anointing; their laws of uncleanness, their avoidance of unclean things; their practices of marriage, divorce, and punishment for adultery; their ornaments…Adair views reflect those of other writers in the 1600 and 1700 they include Gregorio Garcia, Bartolome de las Casas, Thomas Thorowgood all writing between 1607 and 1660, and Cotton Mather, Roger Williams, William Penn and Charles Beatty writing circa 1770. Mails list the 6 Cherokee festivals as The First Moon of Spring Festival, the New Green Corn Feast, The Mature or Ripe Green Corn Feast, The Great New Moon Feast, The Propitiation and Cementation Festival and finally the Festival of the Exalting, or Bounding Bush. As I did with the Jewish Festivals I will go through each of the festivals observing for patterns of honoring God in creation and reflecting God in the examination of the Cherokee conscience.
The First Moon of Spring Festival
Immersion, fasting from food and sleep accompanied by dancing, sacrifice and then feasting, were consistent with the rituals of the Cherokee. There were specific aspects of the ceremonies of the Cherokee that were inconsistent with Biblical precepts. Consulting with divining crystals in particular, this however does not negate the numerous cultural parallels in this one feast alone. Immersion and each one of the other spiritual disciplines has well known equivalents in the Scriptures. Further more the society had other redemptive gifts that were in large measure lost to the church of the last 17th and early 18th century church including the type of future projecting prophecy practiced by Agabus and Paul and others in the New Testament.
The New Green Corn Feast
This feast was one that determined the time to plant. Planting was monitored closely by elders in order to ensure just distribution of food among the seven clans of the Cherokee. A six day fast would precede the planting in order to ensure that God’s blessing would be upon the planting. Additionally the feast had offering made to the Lord, and again sacrifices. The application seems very similar to the admonishment given to believers in Proverbs 3: 9-10. “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over…”
The Ripe Green Corn Feast
This feast is again done in consultation with the elders of the clans. Glory to God is given in forms of exuberant praise that is just being recaptured by the church now through contemporary forms of music and expression. The celebration is described in the following manner.
“This was a time of unmeasured exultation, and the people burst into enthusiasm of joy. While the women and children watched, men took turns performing the festival dance peculiar to the commemoration, and when in the morning the men met in the sacred square, each on held above his head in his right hand his green bough, As the leader struck up the music with his rattle and started the movement, the other men fell in behind him with rapturous expressions on their faces as they imitated the green corn that filled the fields of those who were virtuous. They ran, leaped, sang, and exulted, Even though they appeared to be in wild disorder, they followed ancient rules and were guided by their leader, who during each of seven dances lead them seven times around the tree trunk and under the shade of branches that represented the sheltering arms of the creator.”
Within this quote there are several redemptive elements that can be drawn out. The first being that the worship is lead by men, much of modern preaching and music is catered toward women. It included a physical from of dancing that is exemplified by the warrior- poet David son of Jesse, King of Israel. The festival was a celebration of work and that was seen as sacred. Work and worship have been dichotomized in most of the church word today. Nancy Pearcey, a visiting scholar at Biola, states in her book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity, “industrialization forced men to seek work away from home, in factories and offices, which created a split between the public and private spheres of life. The public sphere became secularized through the new values of competition and self-interest, and the private sphere came to represent the old values of nurturing and religion, Pearcey said. Thus, religion came to be seen as for women and children and not as relevant to the “real” world of business, politics and academia.”
The Cherokee Ripe Green Corn Feast also had an association in tradition that was ancient and reinforced traditional roles. Among men in the church this is known as discipleship. Among the Cherokee it was a bonding of men with generation past, present and future. The church needs such a plan. In the 1700’s and 1800’s looking to Cherokee as a keeping of redemptive gifts was not on any missionaries mind even if they did believe they were the lost tribes of Israel. This is unfortunate because following the Cherokee example could have captured the for Americans a form of honoring God in an agricultural environment that moved beyond the four walls the church building and literally brought it into the harvest field as God prescribed the ‘to Jew first and then to the’ ….Cherokee.
The Great New Moon Festival
The Great Moon Festival repeats the cycle of immersion, fasting from food and sleep, accompanied by dancing, divination is also attached to this festival through the use of Crystals.
The Propitiation and Cementation Festival
This festival is built around the bonding of two men in perpetual friendship one that represented the union between the ‘Cherokee on the earth with the Creator Who Dwelt Above”
The Exalting or Bounding Bush Festival
This feast confronts the difficulty men have in honoring God with offerings and how this reluctance can be overcome with community support. This was demonstrated through a dance in which men held tobacco in their hands ‘at intervals they would suddenly pull back their hands back, as if reluctant to sacrifice the offering. When at last they reach the fire, they as one person threw their offering into the fire.’ The ceremony captures the collective nature of our struggle with selfishness and again could have meaning for the church, certainly the Church of the Cherokee if such rituals were retained in the church proper. Numerous Christian churches are named among the Cherokee at this time. Some of what I am talking about has been maintained other aspects have been lost.
“In 1900 an ever growing majority of Cherokee attended Christian churches, but sermons were in Cherokee and there were strong elements of traditional cosmology in religious practices, … By 1913 there were ten churches on the Qualla Boundary reservation in North Carolina, all but two with Indian preachers preaching in their native tongue; some of these were traditional medicine men and ceremonial leaders who saw no conflict between traditional religion and Christian teaching. Council meetings always opened with a Christian prayer.”
When Jesus says go into all the world and make disciples and teach the nations he did not say usurp their culture. If a people group is still on the planet God has retained in them the understanding of who he is at some level. This is often found within the rites and ceremonies of the people. This was certainly true of the Cherokee. Its application for today is the understanding that God involved in every part of our life. The Cherokee teach the Church several important things. Festivals are markers that return us to an appreciation of who God is and what He has done for us. They involve the whole community. Men are to worship enthusiastically and reverently seeing their work as sacred as their Sabbath. The selfishness of mankind can best be overcome when generosity is expressed as a community and Holiness unto God remains a community concern.
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 141
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 161
Ehle, John. Trails of Tears, The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation.Doubleday, 1988, pg 1
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 164
Pesanmbbee, Michelene E –“When the Earth Shakes: the Cherokee Prophecies of 1811-12.” Journal Title: American Indian Quarterly. Volume: 17. Issue: 3. Publication Year: 1993. Page Number: 301. http://www.questia.com/read/95213574
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 172
Pivec, Holly “The Feminization of the Church, Why its Music and Message are Driving Men Away.” http://www.biola.edu/news/biolamag/articles/06spring/feminization.cfm
Pivec, Holly “The Feminization of the Church, Why its Music and Message are Driving Men Away.” http://www.biola.edu/news/biolamag/articles/06spring/feminization.cfm
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 173
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 175
Mails, Thomas, The Cherokee People, (Council Oak Books, 1992) pg 183
“Cherokee Religion” Philtar Religion, A Division of Religion and Philosophy University of Cumbria http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/nam/cherok.html
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