A celebration of the Cherokee cosmos through creature names, stories, cultural concepts, and reflections

Second place for the 2023 Chicago Folklore Prize

A celebration of the Cherokee cosmos through creature names, stories, cultural concepts, and reflections

Ayetli gadogv—to "stand in the middle"—is at the heart of a Cherokee perspective of the natural world. From this stance, Cherokee Earth Dwellers offers a rich understanding of nature grounded in Cherokee creature names, oral traditional stories, and reflections of knowledge holders. During his lifetime, elder Hastings Shade created booklets with over six hundred Cherokee names for animals and plants. With this foundational collection at its center, and weaving together a chorus of voices, this book emerges from a deep and continuing collaboration between Christopher B. Teuton, Hastings Shade, Loretta Shade, and others.

Positioning our responsibilities as humans to our more-than-human relatives, this book presents teachings about the body, mind, spirit, and wellness that have been shared for generations. From clouds to birds, oceans to quarks, this expansive Cherokee view of nature reveals a living, communicative world and humanity's role within it.

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"Cherokee Earth Dwellers imparts a full, rich, and exciting vision of a living Cherokee cosmos that fosters balance, health, maturity, and awareness of the interconnection of all that is."

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"Found throughout the book are stories and illustrations that are of immense value in Cherokee culture and that are still told today."

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"An immensely rich volume that will prove valuable to both scholars in Indigenous studies and Cherokee communities as they continue Shade’s work of cultural education and language revitalization."

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"Unprecedented in its scope. . . Cherokee Earth Dwellers is a powerful and foundational text of the Cherokee language and culture. . . A beneficial read for anyone looking to reconnect to, or build a relationship with, the Cherokee language and culture. The beauty and power of Cherokee Earth Dwellers, however, is that no expertise in the Cherokee language or natural world is needed, only a passion for the storytelling tradition"