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You may want to ask the oldest living relative to what they know Our elders sometimes know more then they tell . It is for us to ask. That way we may know if not try trible infomation as to the nation which you belong. please don’t stop trying We are one and need to open our hearts and mine . tajo my friend
Hello , from what I have read and it’s limited, there was two clans that hosted our Tutelo relatives these clans were the Snipe and wolf clans, aswell there may have been a bear clan since some of the resources point to it sort of.
Also there is information in one of Frank Goldsmith Specks articles of Catawba kinship!,
hope this helps.
When I was young I remember talking to my dad about being Indian. One of the things that he kept saying that confused me was that we were Crow. I asked him the same questions all the time growing up and he never changed his story. It was always the same. It confused me because he had told me that we were Cherokee and Pawnese and that his great Grandmother was Osage. I asked him then how are we Crow and he would just say “I don’t know that is just what I was told as a kid”.
He then would say that he didn’t think it was the Crow on the Plains, but some other Crow.
Now I don’t know too much about the clan system in Osage or the Saponi, but I know that the Cherokee never had a Crow clan that I am aware of. I don’t think I have ever heard of a Crow clan. I assume that he was telling me that was our clan, but I don’t know. I have read that the Saponi had a high esteem for the raven/blackbird/crow. The Crow Indians were way out on the Plains and so any decsendancy connection from them is just about impossible.
What are your thoughts on this?
Here’s an indirect reference to the ‘crow’ question, from James Mooney’s “History, Myths and Sacred Forumulas of the Cherokees”, p.213:
“The ‘seven clans’ are frequently mentioned in the sacred formulas, and even in some of the tribal laws promulgated within the century. There is evidence that originally there were fourteen, which by extinction or absorption have been reduced to seven; thus, the ancient Turtle-dove and Raven clans now constitute a single Bird clan.”
same source, p.283:
“The raven (ka’lanu) (note: rendered differently in text, the ‘a’ being a short ‘a’ ) is occasionally seen in the mountains, but is not prominent in folk belief, excepting in connection with the grewsome tales of the Raven Mocker. In former times its name was sometimes assumed as a war title (Sam Houston and any ‘Houston’ , was refered to as ‘Raven’ ) The crow, so prominent in other tribal mythologies, does not seem to appear in that of the Cherokee.”
same source, p.281, lists ‘kagu’ as the word for crow, the ‘a’ again being ‘short’ .
Someone may want to see what references to ‘crow’ if any, are found in Mooney’s study of the Eastern Sioux.
Bill
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