The Great Council Spring

The Great Council Spring. . , Believed to have been the source of water for the councils of 1832-1837., Cherokee Belief , There is another world under this, and it is like ours in everything - animals, plants, and people - save that the seasons are different. The streams that come from the mountains are the trails by which we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by which we enter it. But to do this one must fast and go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide. We know that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours, because the water in the spring is always warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than the outer air., In the late 1880s, ethnographer James Mooney collected legends and myths such as this from the Cherokee mythkeeper Swimmer. Swimmer (ca. 1835-1899) was trained to be a priest, doctor, and "keeper of tradition." Swimmer gave nearly three-fourths of the material in Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees to Mooney., First and chief of the list of story tellers comes A'yunini, 'Swimmer... his mind was a storehouse of Indian tradition." , -James Mooney, [Caption:] , Pictured on the left is Swimmer, who spoke only Cherokee throughout his adult life. He wore moccasins, a turban, and carried his badge of authority, the rattle., To the right of Swimmer is a copy of the original manuscript he wrote in Cherokee for James Mooney.