The Lone Wolf Band of Cherokee Indians
Indiana's Cherokee people.

CHEROKEE CEREMONIES and CELEBRATIONS

The First New Moon of Spring Ceremony
took place in the first part of March when the grass and the leaves on the trees began to grow. This festival started the planting season. The festival lasted seven days and included dancing and the re lighting of the sacred fire by the fire maker. Stories were told and predictions concerning the success or failure of the crops. The ceremonies included sacrificing a deer tongue in the fire. All the home fires were extinguished and rekindled from the coals of the sacred fire.

Green Corn Ceremony
took place in August. It was preformed when the new corn became ripe enough to eat. The ceremony was to give thanks to the Creator for a good corn crop. The ceremony included feasts, sacred fires, dances, ball games and meetings to settle differences. New corn was not to be eaten until after the ceremony took place.
Messengers were sent to notify the towns of the nation about when the celebration was to be. Along the way, the messengers gathered seven ears of corn from a field of a different clan. Upon the messengers return, the Chief (uku) and his seven councilors fasted for six days. The ceremony began on the seventh day.
Again the sacred fire was extinguished and rekindled. Again a deers tongue was sacrificed to the sacred fire. Corn kernels from the seven ears of corn the messengers brought back from the clans fields were also thrown into the sacred fire. Old tobacco was sprinkled in the sacred fire and the Chief offered a prayer, dedicating the corn to the Creator.
Food that was made from the new corn was brought into the townhouse and everyone was fed. For seven days the Chief and his Councilors could only eat corn from the previous year’s crops.

The Ripe Corn Ceremony
took place in October when the new moon appeared. Since autumn was the season the Cherokee believed that Mother Earth was created. The ceremony represented the new year celebration.
Each family brought some produce from their field to share, such as corn, beans and pumpkins.
Ceremony included dancing, purification by immersing seven times in water (called “going to the water”) by the “Priest” or Holy Man using a Ulvsuti crystal. The purification ceremony also included predictions of health for the coming year

Reconciliation - Friends Made Ceremony
Ten days after the New Moon Ceremony was held, the sacred fire was rekindled and the Friends Made ceremony began. A “Reconciliation Ceremony” dealt with a friendship between two people of the same or opposite sex. These relationships were bonds of “eternal friendship” in which each person vowed to regard the other as himself as long as they both lived.
The ceremony also was the reconciliation between those who had quarreled during the previous year. It symbolized the uniting of the people with the Creator and purification of body and mind.
The Friends Made ceremony was said to have been the most profoundly religious of all the ceremonies.

Bounding Bush Ceremony
was a non-religious ceremony held in the autumn consisted feasting and dancing. In the dancing, men and women alternated in pairs. Two male leaders carried hoops with four spokes, each with a white feather at the end. The remainder of the dance was described as: other pairs dancing in the middle and at the end of the dancing column also carried hoops. All other couples carried white pine boughs in their right hands.
The small dance movement was circular, and in the center was a man with a small box. He danced around within the circle, singing as he danced. As he passed by the dancers, each dancer dropped a piece of tobacco in his box. The dance ended at midnight and was repeated on three successive nights. On the fourth night there was a feast before the dancing which lasted until midnight and the dancing began.
This time the dancers dropped pine needles into the box of the center dancer. At the end of the dance, near daylight, the dancers formed a circle around the sacred fire and one by one, advancing three times toward the fire. The third time they tossed both the collected tobacco and pine needles into the sacred fire. Unfortunately there is not much known about this ceremony or it’s meaning...only what has been told.

Peace Chief’s (Uku) Dance
This ceremony is said to have replaced the “Great New Moon” ceremony. In this ceremonial dance, the Chief, or Uku led the nation in a ceremony of thanks giving and rejoicing. The ceremony lasted four days. Upon the completion of the four day ceremony, the Chief was reinvested with his religious and civil powers by his right-hand man. Uku was one of several titles conferred upon him.
During the “Friends Made” ceremony, the Chiefs title meant “One who renews heart and body”. Before the Chief performed his dance, he ritually bathed under the guidance of a trained Dida: hnvwi:sgi. He wore special regalia for the occasion and preformed a dance around a specially prepared and sacred circle in square ground. As he danced, he moved slowly around the circle, bowing his head to each spectator. Each spectator then stands and bows their head to show respect and reverence.

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