The Cherokee people (the Tsalagi) always considered themselves to be the protectors of trees. They knew that trees were the oldest living things on the Creators planet. Being the oldest, they were also the smartest living on the earth. Cherokee's considered themselves to be related to pine and cedar trees. They used the boughs of these trees to smudge with. The same way the northern tribes used sweet grass and the western tribes used sage.
They would never cut down a healthy tree because the earth always supplied them with enough downed trees for any thing they needed. The same way a wolf usually would never kills a healthy deer...The Cherokees were forced on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. That name has always bugged me, it wasn't named that because the natives were crying on the trail. It was named that because on the way at times, they had to walk right through a town. Some of the non native settlers along the way were crying, because of the horrible way these people had been treated. The Cherokee called it 'Trail where they cried'.
A fairly large amount of Cherokee never went, but successfully hid in the mountains. In the early 1920's they were living in North Carolina along the borders of Georgia and Tennessee. A logging company decided to come into that area, and whole cut all the trees !
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When the Cherokee found out they were horrified! The logging company needed to build a road so they could haul out the trees, so they began to build a road, but at night the Cherokees would roll big boulders back on the cleared area and anything else they could do to stop the road.
Then they started sneaking into the logging camps at night and stuck feathers in the men's hair to freak them out, while they slept.
The loggers slowly started to quit, so the company managed to get the national guard to protect the men. Finally the road was finished and they drove in the first semi truck to bring out the trees they would be cutting down. As the first semi made it's way down the new road a huge pine tree fell on the cab of the truck and seriously injured the driver. They thought someone must have cut down the tree, but after inspecting the tree, it was a completely healthy tree and had not been cut!
Word got out among the loggers and they all decided to quit for good. The news also spread into nearby towns and the company was unable to hire any more workers. The logging company finally gave up.
The Cherokee celebrated and the trees were saved, and today those beautiful trees are part of the Nantahala National Forrest......Which means in Cherokee, Land of the noon day sun!
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