The First Fire: A Cherokee Story

The First Fire: A Cherokee Story
Author: Bradley Wagnon
Publisher: 7th Generation
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2020-08-19
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 193905351X

First Fire is an ageless Cherokee myth about the revered water spider in their culture. The story happens in a time when animals could do many of the things that people do. The Creator gave the animals the world to live on, but they were without a source for heat at night. Great Thunder and his sons saw the plight of the animals so he sent lightning down to strike a tree. The tree burst into flames but the tree was on an island. Many animals tried to bring the fire over the water to the shore, but they were all unsuccessful. One small creature, the Water Spider, then volunteered. Curious, the animals said to her “We know you could get there safely, but how would you bring the fire back without getting burned?” Water Spider was successful and to this day, the water spider is revered in Cherokee culture.

Myths of the Cherokee

Myths of the Cherokee
Author: James Mooney
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 610
Release: 2012-03-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0486131327

126 myths: sacred stories, animal myths, local legends, many more. Plus background on Cherokee history, notes on the myths and parallels. Features 20 maps and illustrations.

How the World Was Made: A Cherokee Story

How the World Was Made: A Cherokee Story
Author: Brad Wagnon
Publisher: 7th Generation
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2021-08-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1939053587

How the World Was Made is a traditional Cherokee creation story. It takes place during a time when animals did many of the things that people can do. When the earth was young, the animals lived on a rock above it, and the earth was covered with water. The animals needed more room, but where could they find it? This book retells the delightful Cherokee tale of how the earth was created, while teaching the valuable lesson that even the smallest creature can make a big difference. Written in both Cherokee and English so readers can become acquainted with the Cherokee syllabary and language.

The Land of the Great Turtles

The Land of the Great Turtles
Author: Brad Wagnon
Publisher: 7th Generation
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2021-08-10
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1939053579

The Creator gave the Cherokee people a beautiful island with everything they could ever need. It came with only one rule: They must take care of the land and the animals living there. But what happens when the children decide to play with the turtles instead of tending to their responsibilities? The Land of the Great Turtles is a Cherokee origin story that introduces the reader to Cherokee beliefs and values. Written in both Cherokee and English, the book will familiarize readers with the Cherokee syllabary and language.

A Life on Fire

A Life on Fire
Author: Connie Cronley
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2021-08-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0806177756

“How can women wear diamonds when babies cry for bread?” Kate Barnard demanded in one of the incendiary stump speeches for which she was well known. In A Life on Fire, Connie Cronley tells the story of Catherine Ann “Kate” Barnard (1875–1930), a fiery political reformer and the first woman elected to state office in Oklahoma, as commissioner of charities and corrections in 1907—almost fifteen years before women won the right to vote in the United States. Born to hardscrabble settlers on the Nebraska prairie, Barnard committed her energy, courage, and charismatic oratory to the cause of Progressive reform and became a political powerhouse and national celebrity. As a champion of the poor, workers, children, the imprisoned, and the mentally ill, Barnard advocated for compulsory education, prison reform, improved mental health treatment, and laws against child labor. Before statehood, she stumped across the Twin Territories to unite farmers and miners into a powerful political alliance. She also helped write Oklahoma’s Progressive constitution, creating what some heralded as “a new kind of state.” But then she took on the so-called “Indian Question.” Defending Native orphans against a conspiracy of graft that reached from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C., she uncovered corrupt authorities and legal guardians stealing oil, gas, and timber rights from Native Americans’ federal allotments. In retaliation, legislators and grafters closed ranks and defunded her state office. Broken in health and heart, she left public office and died a recluse. She remains, however, a riveting figure in Oklahoma history, a fearless activist on behalf of the weak and helpless.

Myths And Legends Of The Great Plains

Myths And Legends Of The Great Plains
Author: Katharine Berry Judson
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2016-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 147336115X

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to the myths and legends of the Great Plains of America. From the creation of the world to the origin of the buffalo, this volume covers all aspects of the Plains Indians' beliefs, complete with examples of authentic works of art, songs, stories, and more. This volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in culture of the native Americans, and it would make for a worthy addition to allied collections. Contents include: "The Creation", "How the World was Made", "The Flood and the Rainbow", "The First Fire", "The Ancestors of People", "Origin of Strawberries", "Sacred Legend", "The Legend of the Peace Pipes", "A Tradition of the Calumet", "The Sacred Pole", "Ikto and the Thunders", "The Thunder Bird", "The Thunder Bird" et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

Fire Came to the Earth People

Fire Came to the Earth People
Author: Susan L Roth
Publisher: StarWalk Kids Media
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1623340071

Long ago the people of Dahomey told a tale of the days when the world was new, and the only Earth people were animals. They lived in cold and darkness because Mawu, the selfish Moon god, kept all the fire to herself. At last, little Chameleon and slow Tortoise, working together, found a way to outwit Mawu.

Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun

Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun
Author: Geri Keams
Publisher: Turtleback Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1997-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9780613496728

For use in schools and libraries only. After Possum and Buzzard fail in their attempts to steal a piece of the sun, Grandmother Spider succeeds in bringing light to the animals on her side of the world.

The Cherokee Rose

The Cherokee Rose
Author: Tiya Miles
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2023-06-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593596420

Three women uncover the secrets of a Georgia plantation that embodies the intertwined histories of Indigenous and enslaved Black communities—the fascinating debut novel, inspired by a true story, of the National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of All That She Carried, now featuring a new introduction and discussion guide. “The Cherokee Rose is a mic drop—an instant classic. An invitation to listen to the urgent, sweet choruses of past and present.”—Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST Conducting research for her weekly history column, Jinx, a free-spirited Muscogee (Creek) historian, travels to Hold House, a Georgia plantation originally owned by Cherokee chief James Hold, to uncover the mystery of what happened to a tribal member who stayed behind after Indian removal, when Native Americans were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands in the nineteenth century. At Hold House, she meets Ruth, a magazine writer visiting on assignment, and Cheyenne, a Southern Black debutante seeking to purchase the estate. Hovering above them all is the spirit of Mary Ann Battis, the young Indigenous woman who remained in Georgia more than a century earlier. When they discover a diary left on the property that reveals even more about the house’s dark history, the three women’s connections to the place grow deeper. Over a long holiday weekend, Cheyenne is forced to reconsider the property’s rightful ownership, Jinx reexamines assumptions about her tribe’s racial history, and Ruth confronts her own family’s past traumas before surprising herself by falling into a new romance. Imbued with a nuanced understanding of history, The Cherokee Rose brings the past to life as Jinx, Ruth, and Cheyenne unravel mysteries with powerful consequences for them all.