Cherokee Earth Dwellers

"Cherokee Earth Dwellers will be the first book to articulate a Cherokee view of the natural world grounded in Cherokee names for that world. Weaving together a chorus of voices of elders including Hastings Shade, who created booklets with over 600 Cherokee names for animals and plants, the manuscript explores how contemporary Cherokee knowledge keepers understand and engage the natural world. The core of the book is the names themselves, including birds, animals, edible plants, reptiles, amphibians, trees, insects, plants, and fish. Far more than a word list, however, the manuscript includes explanations, anecdotes, and stories attached to each entry that chart the contours of a Cherokee understanding of the natural world. Some of these names are known and in use today by Cherokee speakers, but the vast majority are no longer in everyday use within Cherokee community. What emerges in Cherokee Earth Dwellers is a breathtaking vision of an enstoried Cherokee world, one in which all creatures interrelate in complicated ways that articulate a range of values, and the evolving nature of contemporary Cherokee community"--