The Mockingbird's Ballad

The whites never understood that "eye to eye" was an act of aggression, not accord.

Uncle Samuel, oldest of his mother's two brothers, said, "That is good, Quiet Crow, Elowehi Gogv." And then, "You come for Nancy, Lonesome Cedar, Natsiya Atsima?" Cherokee mothers gave their children two names, an English one and an Indian one. Such had been the custom for generations since the white people had come to the Cherokee lands. William Norman was Quiet Crow, and Nancy, Lonesome Cedar.

"Yes, Uncle, I can be a husband to her now," Norman said in a lower voice to the porch floorboards at his feet. His uncle, mother and father knew Nancy had been his choice of a wife since he was 14 and she 13. During the last two fall return visits of Norman's family to the gathering celebration of the new moon, Norman and Nancy had come to know one another well.

"Quiet Crow, we will go to see Emily Long Hair tomorrow," confirmed Samuel. Emily was the Beloved Woman of the remnant of the Cherokee nation still in the Smokies. Before Nanna dual Tsunyi, the Trail Where They Cried, four years ago, the social structure of the Principal People had included an influential council of seven honored women of various ages. Emily and several hundred of the Cherokee people had escaped the removal of 1837 - 38 to the Land Toward the Dark, west of the Mississippi River. Some had taken small allotments of land to the northeast of the Cherokee nation in the years after the 1818 treaty. Others had eluded General Winfield Scott's blue soldiers who came to round up those people still in the nation and send them into exile. Little William Thomas had bought up parts of the new government land in trust for his Cherokee neighbors, the original custodians of these coves, rivers, ridges and mountains. Those Cherokee who remained struggled to sustain their traditions and life ways in spite of the turmoil they endured. Emily Long Hair, Ani Gilahi, maintained her dignity and calling for the remnant Cherokees. Her people sustained her influence; her counsel on issues important to their society was sought. In the old days before the corruptions of the white soul, before thieves and land bandits led the Principal People to become ordinary people like them, the Beloved Woman had vast powers: blessing marriages, approving divorces, welcoming children, giving pardon to captives in hostilities, and the most critical to the governance of the people -- the removal of unworthy or dishonorable male leaders, whether White Peace Chiefs or Red War Chiefs.

After the grits and fat back breakfast with strong coffee, Norman and Uncle Samuel went up the creek and over to the next cove to Emily's home. Her herb garden greeted them with fragrance, strong now in the drying season. Flowerpots along her front porch were covered in compost and her rocker was draped with a bright, striped shawl. She welcomed them, and Norman gifted her with a pouch of store-bought tobacco in respect. He told her of his adventure and ambitions.