by Meredith
He looked his daughter in the eye. “No.”
“I say yes.”
“And I say no.”
“How do you think you’ll find me? When you’re ready to go, where will Kumu and I be?”
“You’ll be tied to a drag.” The Galayi moved their belongings tied to poles pulled along behind their dogs.
“And Kumu will be walking alongside. My husband stays with me.”
Shonan considered. Salya had chosen the one time she could get away with saying something like that. He couldn’t delay the great journey.
Still, the word “husband” was foolish. Marriage was an important ceremony. The man’s family made substantial gifts to the woman’s. The village joined in singing songs of blessing for the new couple. A pair who got married without the families’ permission would be ostracized, would probably have to leave the village and beg another to take them in.
“Get out of my sight,” said Shonan.
The war chief had bigger things on his mind than his daughter’s boyfriend. He also didn’t care what his son thought. They’d lost half a day. Since he still intended to get started today, there was work to do. He walked around Tusca organizing everything. He encouraged people. He reassured them. He painted pictures of Amaso as an adventure, a new life. The families who were going stopped moping and set to lashing their clothing, their kitchen utensils, their clothes onto the drags. Their spirits rose.
Shonan was achieving the great task the top chiefs had set for him. He gathered young men—families were picked which had lots of young men—and organized them into groups that would scout ahead and behind for enemies, and walk the ridges to the sides. He helped women lash the poles to their dogs. He helped young men gather river cane for blow guns, for such cane didn’t grow near the sea. He was helpful, encouraging, firm—a good leader.
He looked at the sky. Not enough time before dusk, but he thought it was important to get moving.
When the great congregation was organized, his daughter was standing at the front, between his son and the man she intended to marry.
Buy Shadows in the Cave now!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I set out in this novel to write a fantasy about the predecessors of the Cherokee people, my own ancestors, well before their world had been altered by contact with Europeans. I wanted the freedom to explore a culture filled with mysticism and magic, which theirs was. At the same time, I wanted to make my picture of them as accurate, as historical, as possible.
In practice, the job turned out to be to learn all I could about Cherokee in the historical period (after contact with the Spanish in the mid-sixteenth century) and imagine it backward. Anyone who wants to study historic Cherokees is obliged to start with James Mooney’s monumental History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (my own copy is now down at heels). Then I read what little is known about their culture in prehistoric times—and created the rest.
The result, I hope, is a story with some solid foundation but freely imagined.
What here is historical or reasonably extrapolated from history? Their physical culture—their agriculture and hunting, their utensils and weapons, their houses. Also their customs, their tribal organization, their family relations, and so on. I’ve used a lot of their language, ceremonies, and songs. Su-Li, for instance, is the Cherokee word for buzzard, and tsola the Cherokee word for tobacco. The songs Zeya and Jemel sing in their wedding ceremony are based on real Cherokee songs. Many, many other details are authentic in that way. At the same time, I felt obliged to remember that cultures change, and that the ways of the Cherokees (or their ancestors) two millennia ago would have been different from those of two centuries ago, and especially more mystical, more alien from modern ways.
In finding out what is known about the early culture, I got a great stroke of luck. Vincent Wilcox became my neighbor and close friend. Vince had recently retired as curator of Native American Artifacts at the Smithsonian Institution. A super-knowledgeable anthropologist almost next door!
“Vince, when did they get corn?”
“No one knows. You can give it to them or not.”
“Did they have bows and arrows?”
“Not until about 700 A.D.”
“What weapons did they have? What were these things called banner stones?” Etc, etc.
For a project like this, no writer could be luckier than to get the knowledge and wisdom of Vince Wilcox.
In the end, I emphasize, this book is a fantasy, an imaginative reconstruction of a mystical culture in a little-known past. It is created with respect and love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you, wife, for being my partner, my muse, and my gang foreman.
Thanks to my mentors, John G. Neihardt, Clyde Hall, Dale Wasserman, and Larsen Medicine House.
About the Authors
Meredith Blevins is the author of six books, including the acclaimed Annie Szabo mystery series. The first installment, The Hummingbird Wizard, was Library Journal’s best mystery book of 2003, and its sequel, The Vanished Priestess, was named a top mystery of 2004. Publishers Weekly praised the final book in the trilogy, The Red Hot Empress, for “weaving humor, zany characters, and the occult into an entertaining story with serious undertones.”
An award-winning travel writer and photographer for numerous national magazines, Blevins previously wrote a syndicated financial column and worked as a creative arts therapist. Today, she and her husband, the novelist Win Blevins, live in Utah’s quiet canyon country and write books together. Their strengths complement each other, plus, they like hanging out in the same world of imagination. Through their website, www.meredithandwinblevins.com, they teach various aspects of publishing and writing, and they also give creativity and writing classes at universities and writing retreats. Meredith and Win have five children and many grandchildren, and are passionate about adventuring—they travel often, always with laptops, sketchbooks, and musical instruments.
Win Blevins is the author of thirty-one books. He has received the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature, has thrice been named Writer of the Year by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, has been selected for the Western Writers Hall of Fame, and has won two Spur Awards for Novel of the West. His novel about Crazy Horse, Stone Song, was a candidate for the Pulitzer Prize.
A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Blevins is of Cherokee and Welsh Irish descent. He received a master’s degree from Columbia University and attended the music conservatory of the University of Southern California. He started his writing career as a music and drama reviewer for the Los Angeles Times and then became the entertainment editor and principal theater and movie critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. His first book was published in 1973, and since then he has made a living as a freelance writer, publishing essays, articles, and reviews. From 2010 to 2012, Blevins served as Gaylord Family Visiting Professor of Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma.
Blevins has five children and a growing number of grandchildren. He lives with his wife, the novelist Meredith Blevins, among the Navajos in San Juan County, Utah. He has been a river runner and has climbed mountains on three continents. His greatest loves are his family, music, and the untamed places of the West.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Win Blevins
Cover design by Mimi Bark and Amanda Shaffer
978-1-5040-3306-0
This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
18
0 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
www.openroadmedia.com
EARLY BIRD BOOKS
FRESH EBOOK DEALS, DELIVERED DAILY
BE THE FIRST TO KNOW–
NEW DEALS HATCH EVERY DAY!
CHEROKEE MISTS EBOOKS
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Available wherever ebooks are sold
Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.
Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases
Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign up now at
www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters
FIND OUT MORE AT
WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM
FOLLOW US:
@openroadmedia and
Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia
