Shane Lore

[Image credit: Rachel Kreynin, via Google Maps]

[Note: The numbers below refer to locations on the map found on the main page.]

The Supernatural Realms of the Cherokee

Sources: some Wikipedia, but mostly James Mooney’s work: Myths of the Cherokee: Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, published in 1902 in Washington DC. The full text is available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm. (I put page numbers in parentheses for some things.) Maps are via Google.

Our knowledge of the supernatural landscape of the Appalachian South comes from the Cherokee Indians. By the time European Americans arrived in this area, Protestantism and Rationalism had largely choked our ancestors’ spiritual sight, leaving them somewhat blind to deeper realities. Thus we also find them instrumentalizing nature in a brutish fashion, with no regard for the conscious intelligences God had placed as stewards over it. But the Cherokee had maintained their mystic sight, and their witness overwhelmingly agrees with that of the Europeans’ own Catholic ancestors. It’s also worth noting that earthly realities are tied to the earth, and so the spiritual perceptions the Cherokee had on the land we now inhabit have remained here, even if we’ve been distracted from seeing them. Let’s once again let the Cherokee be our guide in exploring this place. Note: numbers in parentheses refer to page numbers in Myths of the Cherokee by Mooney. Nearly all of my information comes from him, and where it doesn’t, I try to cite the source.

Most of the inhabitants of Asia have traditionally been considered descendants of Shem, son of Noah: Noah begat Shem, who begat Arpachshad, who begat Selah, who begat Eber, who begat Joktan, who begat Ophir. As St. Isidore of Seville reveals in his Etymologiae, the sons of Shem went east, and many of the nations of the Orient trace their lineage through that son of Noah. The Indians of the Americas are included in this number as much evidence points to their shared ancestry with East Asians. Some have identified certain toponymic and linguistic connections to the sons of Shem as well. The Yucatan Peninsula is said to derive from an ancestral memory of the name of their progenitor Joktan while the Biblical Ophir is said to have had some influence on the name of Peru. While the exact location of the Biblical Ophir (of “the gold of Ophir” fame) has never been conclusively pinpointed, it’s also possible that the descendants of Ophir established several places that used Ophir as a namesake. Perhaps also this line of mankind just had a knack for finding gold!

The Cherokee are known by linguistic evidence to be from the Iroquois stock, and the traditions of surrounding tribes corroborate this. They very anciently occupied the area around the headwaters of the Ohio River, likely within present-day Pennsylvania, but were driven out by the invading Delaware tribe, who allied with other Iroquoian tribes in this fight. When they came finally to the tributaries of the Tennessee River in the Southern mountains, they had already developed a reputation as a cave-dwelling people, and so they were, and have continued.

The original Iroquois creation myth, which the Cherokee must’ve shared at some point, gives more detail than the story later shared among the Cherokee (both involve mud from the bottom of the ocean that grows and creates the landmass). They both posit, as most of the tribes do, pre-existing matter and animals. In the Iroquois version, North America, however, is built upon the back of a giant turtle, and many Indians still refer to our continent as “Turtle Island” to this day.

The Origin of Evil

Cherokee believed animals of old were much bigger and intelligent, equal to man in most ways. Trees and plants were also conversable. This corresponds to the garden, when man was in perfect relationship with all life and could commune with it (231). At the time of the rebellion in the Garden, on this side of the world, a spirit guardian (some type of angelic being, probably a “great” fairy) called Kana’ti, Lord of the Wild and All Game in the ancient Appalachians, was tending to his realm as given him by Heaven. His wife was Selu, mistress of corn and all that which springs from the soil. Their son played and enjoyed the wilds given over to their care. When once evil entered our world, however, a “wild” boy sprang from the blood of some game that Selu had washed off in the river. This boy then led his brother into all kinds of mischief. In the innocence of the world, Kana’ti had access to a cave on the north side of Mt. Mitchell (the highest peak east of the Rockies, in Yancey Co., NC) from which he had access to all this area’s wild game. He would let out only one or two animals at a time, as he needed. The boys followed him and, when he was gone, let out all the animals, thus spilling forth the earth’s plenty and forcing man to seek his meal by much labor in the dangerous woods. Kana’ti unleashed creeping insects on them as punishment. Then they, in mistrust of their mother, who was the cultivator of corn and all crops, killed her to gain mastery over her secrets. They botched her methods, though, and made the tilling of the soil a toilsome exercise. They ultimately discovered their great energy and power in a battle with wolves and then cannibal spirits, and were sent away to the West, toward the Darkening Land, to put a stop to their mischief on the earth. The Lord God stripped the magic cave away from Mt. Mitchell (and left a rocky cliff there) after Kana’ti’s failure to protect it and decreed that the human descendants of these spirits (akin to the phenomenon of the Nephilim) would be disinherited of their mountain homeland one day in punishment. No humans lived here at the time, but the Cherokee would one day, and they would bear the mixed ancestry of these deities, making them their heirs. Kana’ti and his sons became known as the Ani’hyuntiwalaski, or the Thunders (Thunder People). Thunder and lightning were evidence to the Cherokee of these entities’ wars and disputes. The conquest by Christianity of this land unseated the Thunders for Saints Peter and Paul, who hold dominion over those elements now. However, as in all things an “already but not yet” state of affairs hangs in the balance, and there is resistance given by Kana’ti’s boys to the great Apostles, hence why these elements still harm man.

• 50. Two possible locations of the cave of creation on Mt. Mitchell:

Geographic Considerations

The Cherokee say a spirit that resembled a Great Buzzard was involved in the creation of the Appalachian region. He was tired when he reached the area around the mountains, and his wings flapped and struck the ground, creating great mountains and valleys.

In this landscape, streams that flow from hills and mountaintops are trails by which to reach the underworld or the fairy world, with the springs at their heads being doorways by which this world might be entered. However, one must be fasting and be guided by a spirit being (typically one of the Nunnehi, or Immortals, which I discuss on another page) to make use of these entrances. It takes a fast of four days to see the Nunnehi. The springs are always cool in summer and warm in winter, which points to the seasons of the underworld being different from ours. The Tennessee River’s guardian spirit is called “Long Man,” and he is known as the mightiest such entity in the area. He has diminished in power since the Tennessee Valley Authority’s technological conquest of the river. He is still known to speak amidst the sounds of a raging current, however. He is lord of all rivers and streams in our area (at least of all tributaries of the Tennessee River (394)).

To the east is the Sunland, the place of the Rising Sun (and “Son”). To the West and beneath the earth is the Darkening Land, or Usunhi’yi, where the primordial purveyors of evil have taken up dwelling, and to which black spider spirits drag souls at death to their black coffins. Low thunder at evening in the west is due to the sons of Kana’ti, the sons of thunder. They can cause feast or famine. They led men to curiosity and sin in the beginning (247-8). The Darkening Land is also called the Ghost country (Tsusgina’i). It is the land of the shades, somewhere past the western horizon and the ocean. Because of sin, there is no way to bring back the once-living from this land (254). It takes seven days to reach the Darkening Land, where the shades hold dances. To the north is the blue Frigid Land. To the south is white Wa’hala, where there is a great mountain and a terrapin spirit guardian. Each cardinal direction/land has spirits associated with it and a color/aspect: West-black-death spirits; North-blue-troubles, sadness, calamity; East-red-success/sun/war; South-white-benevolence, peace.

The North wind, and all cold rain, sleet, snow, and hail are the works of the Ice Man, who lives far in the north in an igloo, in the blue Frigid Land (Canada, where igloos were built), with two long plaits of hair hanging down to the ground. He smacks his hair against his hands to create these elements. The Sun, fire, the water (under the “Long Man” of the Tennessee River), wind, storm, frost, stone, flint, whirlwind, and cloud are other elements identified with spirit guardians.

Magic Spring

Just east of Highlands, NC, there is a magic spring called Herbert’s Spring, named for an early commissioner of Indian Affairs. If one drinks from it, it will bewitch one to stay in that country for seven years. It is most likely in Horse Cove, at 1080 1710, Highlands, NC 28741. It is the east-draining spring that is about half a mile from the headlands of the springs that drain west (to the Mississippi). This spring drains to the Savannah and the Atlantic. (It could also be around Glen Falls?)

• 49. 080 1710, east of Highlands

• 49. Glen Falls, southwest of Highlands:

Origin of Pine Trees

The pine trees across Tennessee and the South were said by the Cherokee to originate in the mischief of seven boys who wouldn’t stop playing the rolling stone game, played with a stone wheel and a curved stick. The mothers, in an effort to get the boys to limit their attention to games, presented them with stone wheels one night for supper to teach them that without work, there is no food. The boys took this much too personally and went and did a dance around the townhouse, invoking spirits to hear and aid them. They were elevated by evil spirits off the earth, rising higher with each round. Finally, one of the mothers used the game stick and pulled her boy down, but he plunged so fast that he was swallowed into the earth. The other six boys rose and became (or became part of) the Pleiades (called “the Boys” by Cherokee) while the grave of the seventh boy, being watered by his mother’s tears ever after, sprouted a pine tree. The pine tree thus holds a similar light within it as do the stars, as it came from the same set of boys who never wanted to grow up. The boy is hopefully in heaven now, but all pine trees born from his fall carry part of him in them and should remind us of the need to temper our play and rejoicing in this life with the recognition that toil and growing old are inevitable. The light the pine shares with the stars, though, should also give us hope of the bliss we ultimately seek beyond the skies in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Indian Removal and Divine Punishment

Both the Nunnehi (fairy warriors/Nephilim-type beings, as explained on another page) and the Little People (the smaller, more traditional fairy-type beings that are more familiar) accompanied the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears in 1838. The Nunnehi first, however, took some of the Cherokee to live with them deep inside Pilot Knob (a mountain with Thunder spirits living at the top of Pilot Knob and various layers of Nunnehi settlement all down through the mountain) and Tanasee Bald. This was right before the removal, but the majority decided to stay and fight for their home or otherwise suffer what was coming. The little people served as protectors and comforters and gave the tribe at this time the everlasting fire. This fire, during wind, snow, and rain, continued burning for the Cherokee, as it still does to this day under their protection. The forced removal of the ancient people of Tennessee, many of whom had embraced the Gospel, brought the displeasure of Almighty God upon the American Republic. President Jackson, who had believed the preservation of the American Nation via the Union his greatest aim in life, laid the groundwork for its tearing asunder by his wicked act. For in attempting to cleanse the land of its ancient inhabitants and so unify American landholdings, the violence entailed would bring God’s anger upon this Union, and especially upon Tennessee and Georgia. The Union would be sundered and American would burn and pillage American in the coming decades. Though the unity of America would ultimately be preserved, it would only be by fire, a fire that turned the greed that inspired Indian Removal back upon the perpetrators.

Indians Who Fled their Fate

Some of the Cherokee who were warned of the coming destruction by the Americans, after seven days of prayer and fasting, consented to the Immortals picking them up in their townhouse and carrying it to their fairy underworld. Because of a lack of faith, some of them and part of the townhouse were dropped and became the Se’tsi mound in Cherokee County, NC, while those remaining were placed on top of Tsuda’yelun’yi (Lone Peak), also in that county. The townhouse was changed to a solid rock atop this mountain. They were said to have gone to live with the Immortals under this mountain, living as these spirits live ever after. A similar thing happened on the Hiwassee, and the people were placed at the bottom of the river in a mystical townhouse with the Immortals. These Cherokee may be stuck in this world now, because as humans they sought to shirk their fate. Prayers should be offered for them to pass on, as their place is not with the immortal spirits of this world. Near Kingston, TN, on the Tennessee River, is a rounded dome of stone at the bottom of the river. That was a townhouse that slid off the bank of the river in a mudslide and trapped the people beneath. They are ghosts there now, and boatmen will often offer them morsels of food in exchange for safe passage across the river. Better would be to offer them prayers so that they may be released from their suffering. You may hear drum and dancing when going by this spot. That’s a reminder to pray for them.

• 53. Se’tsi mound must be in this vicinity here west of Andrews, NC (on south side of Valley River, about three miles below Valleytown, in Cherokee County. Anisgaya’yi, the town these Cherokee were from, must’ve been in same vicinity):

• 54. Lone Peak, Tsuda’yelun’yi (name means “where it is isolated,” a solitary high peak near Cheowa Maximum, a few miles northeast of Robbinsville, in Graham Co., where there is a large rock resembling a circular townhouse with a part missing on one side); its vicinity, at the headwaters of the Cheowa:

• 55. Du′stăyalûñ′yĭ: place under Hiwassee River (now further submerged by the damning of the river) where the ghost townhouse and an Immortals location is (just northwest of Penland Island; to the left of the “Chatuge Lake” label in the map below). Haunted place (nets drag, voices can be heard). (The name means “Where it was shot,” in the territory on Hiwassee river, about the mouth of Shooting creek, above Hayesville, in Clay Co.)

• 56. Haunted area on TN River below Kingston, TN, where the townhouse slid into the river:

Bears of the Smokies

Amazingly, the bears of the Smoky Mountains are actually transformed Cherokee of the old clan of the Ani’Tsa’guhi. Their spirit chief/guardian (not a transformed human but a spirit being) is the White Bear, who lives within Kuwa’hi (Clingman’s Dome) (250), near the enchanted heavenly lake of Ataga’hi (where wounded bears can be healed if they survive being hunted; more on this lake below). Under Clingman’s Dome and three other peaks (Tsistu’yi, Uya’hye, and Gate’gwa) in the Smokies the bears have townhouses, where they dance and congregate before hibernating in the winter. It is reported that they can talk but that they just choose not to. A mother bear was heard singing to her cub in words a hunter could understand once. Water bears live under Oconaluftee River, about a mile above its junction with Tuckaseegee, in Swain Co. There is a deep hole in the river they live in. They govern water mammals (411). The bear peaks of the land bears include Gregory Bald (Tsistu’yi), Mt. Guyot (Uya’hye), and a third one southwest of Franklin, NC, called Fodderstack Mountain (Gate’gwa), or great swamp/thicket. They each house a great dance before the bears hibernate for the winter. They are conceived in these four as well, and healed by the White Bear chief spirit at Clingman’s Dome.

• 58. Tsistuyi (Gregory Bald):

• 59. Kuwahi, Mulberry Place (Clingman’s Dome):

• 60. Uya’hye (Mt Guyot):

• 61. Gategwa (Fodderstack Mountain):

• 62. Vicinity of where the Water Bear pool is, Swain Co., NC, east of Bryson City):

Atagahi, the Enchanted Lake from Heaven

Ataga’hi, also Gall Place or the enchanted lake (described sometimes as a large bare flat submerged at intervals), is west of the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River, in the deepest wilds of the Great Smoky Mountains, near the state line. The easiest way to get closest to it is to take Clingmans Dome Road, which runs near it, and to ascend the dome. However, the only way to see it is to fast and keep an all-night vigil before climbing Clingman’s Dome (Kuwa’hi). Most cannot go there in this life, but some holy hunters have nearly stumbled upon it. They hear a whirring sound of thousands of wild ducks (which fly about the lake). In trying to find the lake, though, many come upon only a dry flat, without bird or animal or grass. But to one who is spiritually prepared and cleansed, upon surmounting Kuwa’hi, he will see a wide, shallow sheet of purple water, with springs from the surrounding mountain peaks feeding the great expanse. The area and lake teem with wildlife, including great flocks of ducks and pigeons flying overhead. The lake heals those animals and spirits that are fortunate enough to be granted access. The Enchanted Lake is a vision of the New Earth descending out of Heaven, the lake being watered by streams of Living Water flowing from God’s throne, and so few are those that are granted this privilege by God. If you are such a holy soul, you will see the mystical lake to the northeast of the Clingman’s Dome observation tower at daybreak.

• 59. Limits of where Atagahi might be, with the area around Kuwahi (Clingman’s Dome) being the most likely (Atagahi is described as being on the northern boundary of Swain County between the heads of Bradleys Fork and Eagle Creek):

Plant Spiritual Warfare

The fact that some plants kill and some heal is due to spiritual warfare: evil spirits trying to destroy the insolent men and merciful spirits aiding them via the plants in their power/under their guardianship (252).

Judaculla, Lord of Giants and the Wilds

Within Tanasee Bald in Jackson County, NC, on the ridge upon which Haywood, Jackson, and Transylvania Counties converge, the ridge separating the waters of Pigeon River from those flowing into Tennessee Creek and Cany Fork of the Tuckasegee, southeastward from Waynesville and Webster (at 5,565 ft elevation, just west up the slope from the Parkway Road as it curves west after crossing south over the Blue Ridge Pkwy), is the dwelling place of Tsulkalu’, or Jutaculla, the great lord of game and king of the giants, a giant known for his skill on the hunt (and for that he “owns” the game in the mountains) and his “slant eyes.” There is a cleared spot on this bald (Jutaculla Old Fields) that he deforested as the entrance to his residence and as a farm, though mortals cannot enter without his willing it. Jutaculla has a “bed,” upon the bald that he keeps very neat, under a large overhanging rock. It’s reported that if trash or brush were thrown onto it, it would be cleaned again the next morning. Many settlers believed evil and devil-like energy surrounded this place, and it is obvious Jutaculla encouraged this sentiment with his activities. Nearby (east of Cullhowee in the shadow of Coward Mountain, 552 Judaculla Rock Rd, at about elevation 2,240), is Jutaculla Rock, which has strange scratchings and carvings all over it. Some of these marks were made by the giant when he would jump from this area to the Caney Fork Creek down the hill. “As he landed, he stumbled and put out a hand to keep from falling. His hand pressed against a giant boulder to steady his massive frame. In so doing he left several indentions including an impression of his hand. Then with the nail of his right index finger, he drew a sharp line across the face of the rock that was to remind people that harm would come to those who crossed it without first going through the appropriate rituals.” (source: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/23/judaculla-rock-q-4). The nearby town of Cullowhee means “Judaculla’s Place,” specifically the area where Western Carolina University is.

Judaculla is a Nephilim (a human-demon hybrid), though because he has been in the mountains for centuries (at least), his physical body may have died. It appears that he exists more like a demon now, without a definite physical body (much like the unclean spirits of the Nephilim that Our Lord cast out during his Earthly ministry). Extreme caution should be exercised near his old haunts. Blessed rowan crosses, scripture pages, holy water, and prayers for protection should accompany the pious traveler.

• 80. Tanasee Bald (Jutaculla Old Fields); to see it, park at Courthouse Valley Overlook and look west up the mountain:

• 80. Devil’s Courthouse, or his judgment seat (just NE of the Old Fields). To reach it, stop after going through the tunnel (if heading west) at the Mt. Hardy Overlook to gaze at it. This is where Judaculla sits “upon his great mountain top judgment seat with a commanding view down upon all of those who may partake in the hunt of his game.”

• 81. More fields belonging to Judaculla, NE of the Judaculla Rock (Old Fields Bald Ridge on the left, Judaculla Ridge on the right):

• 82. Judaculla Mountain (another one of his possessions):

• 83. Looking Glass Rock (NW of Brevard) a “granitic dome mountain, and the place where Judaculla is said to have seen his own reflection. When wet or icy, the granite cliff faces reflect light and only a giant could stand so tall to see himself at those great heights” (source: https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/23/judaculla-rock-q-4):

• 84. Jutaculla Rock (552 Judaculla Rock Rd, Cullowhee, NC 28723):

There is also a place along Tuckasegee River in Swain County, NC, about a mile above Deep Creek, where a footprint of his was found (with a slain deer nearby).

• 4. Tsulâ′sinûñ′yĭ: “Where the footprint is,” east of Bryson City (railroad blasting removed the rock):

Judaculla was known to have taken a wife from Kanuga on the Pigeon River who bore him half-giant children under Tanasee Bald. The place where he and his children went up to Tanasee Bald still bears their footprints (Shining Rock or Cold mountain, between the Forks of Pigeon river, in Haywood Co., NC: the footprints are at a rock at its base, toward Sonoma and three miles south of the trail.)

• 85. Where the footprints are (vicinity):

• 41. Probable location of Kanuga town:

Dealing with the Giants of the Mountains

Special dress that the giants provide can enable a man to see them, but otherwise they prefer to remain invisible (more evidence that they exist in a demon-like state today). One must fast seven days before attempting to don it. A troupe of similar giants also lives far in the west. These giants are afflicted with great sensitivity over their ogre-ish appearance. They cannot abide any man calling them “frightful” or usga’setiyu. They spread this vainglory and lack of resignation to the will of God wherever they go. They can inspire one to forsake kin, relations, and associates out of a prideful sensitivity that can divide and splinter human society. Dancing and drumming can sometimes be heard from within Tanasee Bald, and this is from the lair of the giants. Sometimes Judaculla is in conflict with the Immortals, and he can oppress them. Bigfoot sitings may be in some cases giant sitings.

Hidden Mines

At the abandoned town of Morganton, on a rocky hill on the old Indian Trail on the west side of the Little Tennessee River, above and nearly opposite Morganton, in Loudon Co., are (or at least were, one hundred years ago) four trees blazed in a strange way. They mark hidden mines.

• 95. Likely vicinity of the hidden mines of Morganton:

Sacred Wood

Though Christ’s cross was partially made of the wood of a rowan tree, the more common Christological tree in our area is the dogwood. The dogwood used to grow tall and straight, and so its wood was many times incorporated into crucifixes. From atop the partially dogwood Cross, our Lord condemned the dogwood to forever be short and twisted, of no use for building ever again. The blooms were cursed as well, with the bracts taking the shape of a cross, the flowers at the center resembling his crown of thorns, and the dimples on the outer edge of the bracts reminders of the nails driven through his hands.

Cedar is sacred to the Cherokee and is burned to drive off malevolent ghosts (asgina). Cedar was the only wood that could stop the severed head of an evil magician from talking, and its red color may have something to do with his blood staining it (421). Cedar stands, like those found frequently in Middle Tennessee, then, are safer spiritually than many other types of forests.

Basswood cannot be struck by lighting. Burning laurel or rhododendron can bring cold weather. Laity should not touch a tree struck by lightning. Corn, or selu, was reportedly given to man by “the Old Woman,” a spirit slain by her sons (the wife of Kana’ti). Indians had a ceremony that brought her blessing on the new corn crop. They used to weep and wail at the four corners of a corn field over her death. This points to the sacrificial nature of food production (sowing, then reaping).

Sacred Tobacco and other plants

Witches and evil spirits can be driven away by tobacco. It can also be used to seal agreements. This is why, in our crooked age, tobacco has been demonized. Ginseng is made invisible by its guardian spirit to those unworthy to gather it, and one should pass over the first three plants one comes across and then take them starting with the fourth one. Poisonous parsnip is used in curses. White seeds of vipers bugloss can tell the future. Culver root is used in love potions. Campion can cure snake bite and the root held in the mouth will drive away the deadliest snake (426). Possessing the spittle of someone can give one power over him. This is demonstrated in our day by DNA tests.

The Ark of the Cherokees

The Cherokee also had an “ark,” a wooden box, almost square, wrapped up in a buckskin, in which were their most sacred objects (known to be conjuring traps). It had to be carried by two priests who watched over it at all times. It was captured by the Delawares at the end of the eighteenth century, and it is believed trouble came upon the Cherokee beginning after that. They also had a sacred stone turtle drum used at all the town dances that was buried in Keowee, SC, as whites approached to take the town. Since the Cherokee never recovered the town, it is supposedly still buried somewhere in that area. Their great peace pipe, carved of white stone with seven stem-holes, is also lost.

• 96. Apparent site of Keowee, now submerged (north of Clemson, SC):

Chota, Sacred Peace Town

From Wikipedia: “Chota was the most important of the Overhill towns from the late 1740s until 1788. It replaced Tanasi as the de facto capital, or ‘mother town’ of the Cherokee people. A number of prominent Cherokee leaders were born or resided at Chota, among them Attakullakulla, Oconostota, Old Hop, Old Tassel, Hanging Maw, and Nancy Ward.” A peace town in the Cherokee realms was similar to a peace town in Biblical Israel: a place where violence (even in pursuit of justice) was not permitted.

• 71. Sacred Peace Town and Capital Chota, with nearby Tanasi, source of Tennessee’s name