NCPI Workmark
Articles in regional publications that pertain to a wide range of North Carolina-related topics.

Myth Keeper of the Cherokees

Record #:
8293
Author(s):
Abstract:
James Mooney of the U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology visited the Qualla Reservation of the Cherokees in 1877, gathered plants which the Indians used for food and medicine and did research on Cherokee myths. Most of what Money collected was donated to him by the Cherokee's leading shaman, an Indian named “Swimmer.” Swimmer also served in the Civil War, as a second sergeant of the Cherokee Company A, Sixty-Ninth North Carolina Confederate Infantry, Thomas Legion. With encouragement from Mooney, Swimmer compiled his knowledge of Cherokee culture and traditions into a 240-page book known as the Swimmer Manuscript, containing prayers, songs, and prescriptions to cure diseases.
Source:
The State (NoCar F 251 S77), Vol. 51 Issue 8, Jan 1984, p32, por