Got this one in the mail. I answered best I could but thought it best to pass it on. I'm pretty sure our Cherokee members (and some others) know more than I do on this.
Below is the email, followed by my limited answer.
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I'm writing a novel which tangentially touches aspects of the Cherokee of North Carolina. The mother of the main charcter is half-Cherokee and the main character is one-quarter, atlhough he has relatives on his mother's side who are full-blodded Cherokee and live in the town of Charokee in the Appalachians Mountains of North Carolina.
While I am able to get some information on the Cherokee language and other aspects of their lives, I haven't been able to find anything on, for lack of a better term, Medicine Men within that particular tribe.
I realized from reading websites by Native Americans that there is a worry that when they are portrayed in the media, the characters are often misleading or stereotypical.
The character that is the full-blooded Cherokee is certainly not stereotypical of anything. He is a minor character, but he supplies a major bit of exposition that has to do with the plot. He is what his half-Cherokee first cousin calls a "walking contradiction." In some respects, he resists assimilation into the larger culture. In other respects, he is very assimilated.
What I'm writing you for, is that the cousin is a brilliant but absent-minded person, who, among a long list of diverse accomplishments, is said to have been trained as a shaman, although the main character doesn't know what that really means. In reading another site, I realized that "shaman" is sometimes not considered accurate by some authorities, for people who have visions or some kind of extrasensory abilities. But Medicine Man doesn't seem much better.
I guess what I'm really asking, would Native Americans who are very adept at living in both the Indian and White worlds, even use terms like that? I suppose one of the things I really need is the Cherokee word for such a mystic, which I can write phonetically and explain in English. And is there someone you trust who would know specific aspects of what such a person in a Cherokee culture (as opposed to Sioux or Navajo) might practice to have a vision or seek guidance for another? (In the story, as written, he foresees some danger looming before the main character, which, will eventually shown to be true.)
None of this is to be long and drawn out, but it is a way to show that this character, who is brilliant but scattered in his conversations, and technically trained in his profession, also has legitimate and valuable insights from his native culture that he uses to try to help his friends and relatives.
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Hello,
I'm not Cherokee, and thus am speaking as an outsider. But since Cherokees are very often lied about, these kinds of questions come up quite a bit.
Most Cherokees are Christian, usually Southern Baptists. Many of these Cherokee Christians also consider themselves traditionalists at the same time. While there do remain quite a few herbal healers, there's not really anything like a shaman. By some accounts (anthropologist James Mooney, who remains controversial) the Cherokee killed off all their medicine people back in the eighteenth century.
Not being Cherokee I would not want you to consider what I say the final word or definitive. With your permission I'll repost your question. I can leave your name off if you like.
Al Carroll
