Note: Some Cherokee storytellers, such as Gayle Ross, are from outside Appalachia, but they and their stories are descended from the strong Cherokee culture that their ancestors took from the Southeast to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears. "The First Fire." In Scheer, George F., ed. Cherokee Animal Tales. Illus. Robert Frankenberg. Holiday House, 1968. Rpt. Tulsa, OK: Council Oak Books, 1992. pp. 25-29. Many different animals try to bring fire to the cold world, but they get singed in the process. Water Spider succeeds by using her thread to tie a bowl on her back, bringing back a little coal from a burning tree on an island. A soft pencil drawing shows the animals gathered around the water spider. Moore,
MariJo. First Fire. Barrington,
Roth, Susan L. The Story of Light. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1990. A pourquoi tale about how spider takes light in a clay pot from the sun on one side of the world to the animals on the other side. With striking black, white, and yellow collage illustrations. Keams, Geri. Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun: A Cherokee Story. Illus. James Bernadin. New York: Rising Moon, 1992. See cover and description at Nancy Keane's Booktalks. Ross, Gayle. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage performance. Mar. 5, 2003. Video available on page about Gayle Ross at Kennedy Center web site (accessed 1/18/04). Ross opens the performance by singing and telling about the creation of the world and Grandmother Spider bringing fire to the people. She links these creation and animal tales with later Cherokee history, including the Trail of Tears, when people carried coals of the sacred fire to Oklahoma, where it burns today. Grandmother Spider today has the round white mark made by the bowl she carried. It's "her badge of honor" because "the great gift of fire" came from "one of the smallest and meekest of our animal brothers and sisters." She also tells about her family and Cherokee history, and other tales. See AppLit's Gayle Ross bibliography. The First Fire, Cherokee tale online in Stonees Web Lodge. "Water Spider has black downy hair and red stripes on her body. She could run on top of water and she could dive to the bottom. She would have no trouble in getting to the island" to get fire for the people. She's little but she can spin thread to make a little bowl on her back. "Every since [sic], we have had fire. And the Water Spider still has her little bowl on her back." "Getting Fire." As told by Kathi Smith Littlejohn. In Duncan, Barbara R., ed. Living Stories of the Cherokee. Chapel Hill: U of NC Press, 1998. pp. 53-55. A buzzard and snake get burned trying to get fire from the other side of the world. Grandmother Spider plans on the way that she will make a pot of clay to carry the coals on her back. "She made it all the way back and gave everybody some fire. But then she also gave the Cherokee people the idea of making pottery." This version is similar to the one collected by James Mooney in Myths of the Cherokee (1900). The stories are transcribed in this book in a free verse form that represents the storytellers' "rhythmic style," using the "oral poetics" method developed in the 1970s. Background is included on storyteller Littlejohn, a native of Cherokee, NC. "How the Water Spider Captured Fire." In Chiltoskey, Mary Ulmer. Aunt Mary, Tell Me A Story: A Collection of Cherokee Legends and Tales. Ed. Mary Regina Ulmer Galloway. Cherokee, NC: Cherokee Communications, 1990. pp. 64-65. With one drawing by John Barton Galloway. In this version the animals see fire but have no control over it. As the world gets colder, they try to get fire from a burning tree in the river. The crow, owl, two snakes, and hoot owl fail, but the water spider realizes that preparation is needed. The coal she risks her life to carry burns a place in her basket so she still carries the basket and the mark of the fire today. "Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun." Retold by James Mooney. Illus. Leo and Diane Dillon. In Cohn, Amy L., ed. From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folk Songs. New York: Scholastic, 1993, pp. 12-13. Possum gets the fur burned off his tail trying to get light from the sun for the people. Buzzard gets his head feathers burned off. Grandmother Spider makes a pot of clay and since she is small, the people who have light don't notice her taking the sun to her side of the world, where the people now have sun, fire, and pottery making. Ernesto, Lilly. How Grandmother Spider Got the Sun: A Cherokee Tale. Illus. Michael Grejniec. Invitations to Literacy Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. 16 pp. "Grandmother Spider Brings the Light," A Cherokee/Creek/Kiowa pourquoi tale with gestures for young children, adapted by Sherry Norfolk (AL). In Holt, David and Bill Mooney, eds. More Ready-to-Tell Tales from Around the World. Little Rock: August House, 2000. 256 pp. Gives photos and background on the storytellers, notes on each story, age recommendations, and tips from the storytellers. The tales are organized by themes, with a geographical index. Another Appalachian tale in the book is "The Talking Dog" by Doc McConnell. "How the Cherokee Indians Got Fire." In Johnson, F. Roy, ed. How and Why Stories in Carolina Folklore. Murfreesboro, NC: Johnson Pub., 1971. pp. 101-02, The Thunderers, called Ani-Hyuntikwalaski, "sent a lightning bolt and planted it in the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree. These were the Thunderers who lived way up in Galunlati. But this tree was on an island, and no one could get to this tree on an island because of the water. The animals saw the smoke" and had a council about how to get the fire they needed. Raven got his feathers scorched black; little Screech-owl, called Wahuhu, got smoke in his eyes, which are red to this day; Hooting Owl, Uguku, and the Horned Owl, Tskili, were blinded by smoke and ashes and got white rings around their eyes; little Black Racer snake, called Uksuhi, swam across but his body was scorched black so he darts and doubles still in the way he raced back away from the fire; large Blacksnake, Gulegi, the Climber, swam across and climbed the tree but put his head in a burning stump and was turned black as Racer. The creatures had another council but all were afraid to go. "At last the Water Spider, Kananeski, which spins around on the water like a little black button, said she would go. Not only could she run on the water, but she could dive. She sat to work and spun a thread from her body into a tusti bowl, which she fastened to her back. She crossed over the water to the sycamore tree, placed a little coal of fire into her bowl and swam back with it." Since then the Cherokees have had fire and she has worn the tusti bowl on her back. This tale is retold in the young adult novel The Fledglings by Sandra Markle. (Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press, 1992). After Kate (age 14) runs away from Atlanta to find the grandfather she didn't know she had on Snowbird Mountain (near Cherokee, NC), she learns the language and customs of the Tsa la ki (Cherokee) from him. He tells Kate and her friend this story to pass on traditional tales to the younger generation and their descendants. This tale in which the ingenious water spider fetches fire from an island sycamore tree, after other animals get singed in the attempt, foreshadows the climactic crisis when they are attacked by poachers and must use their strength and wits to survive a fire (pp. 104-107). See Folklore Themes in Longer Appalachian Fiction. See also: Other pourquoi tales about animals, natural phenomena, and human inventions are listed in the Native American section of this index and in AppLit's picture book bibliography. Pourquoi elements are also found in tall tales such as Tony Beaver, Swamp Angel, and Steven Kellogg's Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett. See study guide on Tall Tales and Jack Tales. Compare with: Other North American tales such as "Blue Jay and Swallow Take the Heat." Retold by Virginia Hamilton in When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing. Illus Barry Moser. New York: Blue Sky/Scholastic, 1996. Blue Jay and Swallow acquire some of their distinctive traits while figuring out how to take fire from Firekeeper and get it to the lone, cold boy Alcee Lingo. Miss Swallow dips a chunk of fire in seven ponds, but Firekeeper's wife singes some of her tail feathers while trying to stop her. Thereafter Swallow could lean on chimneys and walls with her tail, people let her build nests around warm chimneys, and "children have toted fire chunks from cabin to cabin" (p. 25). Blue Jay should also be remembered for bravely taking on Firekeeper. Moser's realistic watercolor paintings depict birds wearing hats and ugly humans (including a self-portrait transforming himself into "mean old Firekeeper"). Based on black cante fable tales collected by Alabama folklorist Martha Young after the Civil War. Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire. Choctaw version online at Stonee's Web Lodge. "Opossum Steals Fire." In Peck, Catherine, ed. QPB Treasury of North American Folktales. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1998. pp. 10-11. Opossum convinces the old woman who is hoarding fire to let him near her fire. He takes the fire on his tail to people, so the opossum's tail is bald and he has asked people never to eat him. A Mexican tale from The Mythology of Mexico and Central America by John Bierhorst (1990). Peck notes that in some North American tales, fox gets fire and that is why his feet are black. Fire Race: A Karuk Coyote Tale of How Fire Came to the People by Jonathan London, Lanny Pinola. Illus. Sylvia Long. Chronicle Books, 1997. Picture book with brightly detailed illustrations. Tales from other traditions about getting or stealing fire include the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished by the gods for giving fire to humanity. An American 19th-century retelling from Bullfinch's Mythology is online at Bartleby.com. Last
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