Cherokee Dance Rituals

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The Cherokee Indians are the second largest tribe in the United States. With a population of around 200,000 tribal members, they practice many beliefs and rituals. Rituals are a set of actions, preformed mainly for their symbolic value. Most of these rituals and beliefs started many of years a go and have been passed along to present day. They start from the day a Cherokee is born to the day they pass away. When a new Cherokee was born in a family, there was a ceremony typically performed within seven days of birth. The child is taken to a running body of water and the seven places ceremonially washed with water. It is very common for the maternal grandmother to name all of her grandchildren with Cherokee names. During pregnancy women should…show more content…
The dance participants’ wear a can filled with pebbles around their ankles to provide rhythmic sound. The ceremony involves sacrifices made by the ceremonial leaders, prayers, taking medicine, going to water or river for ritual cleansing and smoking the pipe. The Stomp Dance is considered to be a holy even for worshiping Unetlanv. Cherokee medicine men and women also play and important part in Cherokee rituals and beliefs. The knowledge is handed down from medicine people before them who train for many years to come up with the formulas. Cherokee medicine people travel to the rock caves to meet with the Little People and share their secrets. The proper way to find a medicine person is be part of a Cherokee community. Advertising and telling the formulas is prohibited. The Cherokee wedding is said to be a very beautiful ritual. It is forbidden to marry with in on family clan. Because the women hold the family clan, both her mother and oldest brother at the wedding ceremony represent her. The setting of the wedding blessed seven days prior to the ceremony. At the ceremony songs are sung and everyone is blessed including the guests. The couple drinks from the wedding vase together. After the ceremony is over, the town holds a wedding feast where there is dancing and celebrating into the

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