The Feathered Serpent
Long, long ago, it was the custom for the Medicine Man to keep all the records of their tribe in their head. There was one class of these that deserved special recognition because of their rank of priest and the white robes that they wore, because the vows that they took required that they would never spill human blood. They could travel anywhere even among the enemy tribes and they were always welcome. There were other story tellers from village to village and as they traveled they would carry the gossip and news from each tribe to the next, when they were seen approaching the people would cry out, “The Story Tellers are coming, The Story Tellers are coming and all the people would begin to gather around and after he had eaten he would be given a seat of honor and they would talk about the things that he had seen in his travels . Finally he would begin his stories and they might cover many range of things and when the stories were done the people would give to him gifts for exchange for his stories. This was the way that they made their living in the long ago times. Now every tribe had their story tellers and they were the ones that kept the records in their heads.
In those times there were no televisions, no radios, the people had nothing to read and word of mouth was the only way these stories could be preserved. So on the long winter evenings when there was little work to do they would gather around the fire and the stories would be told. Even today you seldom find an Indian that does not like to tell a good story and they all have at least one or two. The first story that I am going to tell is one of our oldest surviving story for the Cherokee People.
It is about a man that we know from history that crossed the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii where he spent a year and from there the Hawaiians brought him from there to America. When he came here he was a young man when he left he was very old, during the time he was here he traveled all over North and South American.
When we asked this man his name, he would never give his name and for this reason he has many names and the name I will use in this story is the most common one. We have a good physical description of this man, he was as bout 5' 10" and he had brown hair with brownish red highlights and it is said that his eyes were gray like the sea just before a storm, As he traveled throughout the Americas he would spend a year with each tribe and from there he would visit the smaller tribes that were around there. It was his custom as he went among the various tribes to select twelve men to whom he would teach the new way to and when he was gone it was for these men to teach the people.
In that long ago time when he walked among us the Cherokee people were known as the Serpent People and they lived in now what is known as Hondoras and they were a sea going people. We watched him to know what to call him, we found that he had many strange powers, He could walk on the water, He could even stop the hurricanes, He could quickly learn the languages of the people that he came among, he could speak to the animals and they would understand him and respond. He had the power to heal the sick and raise the dead. In that long ago time one of the things that impressed the most of this man was that he could control the four elements, Earth, Fire. Water, and Air, that we feared the most. So he is called the Feathered Serpent because the Feather is the symbol of the wind and the Serpent is the symbol of the Water.
While many stores from tribe to tribe are so similar, it is hard to tell if all of these are different happenings., but this story is a Cherokee story and it is theirs alone and none can take it from us . And this is what my grandfather as an old man told me when I was a boy and they had it from old men when they were boys, and so it has always been told back to the happening.
There was a time when the Feathered Serpent walked among us and there was a time when he was worried in his mind for what the future held for the Cherokee Nation, he was so worried that he go up and began to walk in the night and those men that he has chosen also got up and walked with him fearing something would happen to him and as he walked in the moonlight in the woods he came to a clearing and there in the moonlight lay a baby dear. It was obvious that this child of the forest had been long without his mother. The man spoke to the baby dear: "Little silver spotted baby" Where is your Mother? The little fawn looked off in one direction and the man motioned for him to follow. Together they walked into the woods and after a time they came upon the body of the mother deer lying there in the moonlight. She was dead, cold, torn, bloody, she had given her life to a Mountain Lion to save her baby. There in the moonlight the man knelt down and began to weep, He began to stroke the body of the Mother Deer and as he did this thing a strange and wonderful thing began to happen, for her heart began to beat, she began to breathe and the wounds closed up, she stood on her feet and let her baby nurse, when his followers seen this thing they came up to the man and began to scold him saying you are wasting your powers on the animal people and when the real people need your help the power will all be gone.
Then he began to teach them with these words. Of any good there can never be too much. The more you use this power the greater it shall become and I say to you doing good is the will of my father. The saving of this little child of the forest is as important as the saving of a Nation as long as you don’t have to choose between the saving of them. I say to you again doing good is my father’s business. This story has been told from generation to generation. The Feathered Serpent walked among our people. This is how the Creator’s Son got the name from the Cherokee people as the Feathered Serpent.
Ask your heart to memorize for the little ones. There will come a time that this story may have to be be remembered in the Tribe, when the great books will be burned and we will only have our minds to keep the records again.
Walks With Hawks.
For Educational Purposes Only
