Red Bird and Sequoyah: A Reply to Simek et al.

Abstract

Red Bird was a Cherokee murdered at the Red Bird River Petroglyph site (15Cy51) and buried at the Red Bird River Rockshelter (15Cy52) during the late eighteenth century, where he left an important record of traditional petroglyphs. His legacy is key to understanding the origins of Sequoyah's Cherokee Syllabary and its relationship to rock art. Personal testimonies of Red Bird's descendants are supported by primary documents and archaeological evidence, including the letters of Sequoyah's maternal uncle, John Watts, and prototypes of Cherokee Syllabary characters engraved at 15Cy52 in 1808, when members of Sequoyah's matrilineal family resided nearby.

Hypoxia in Paleolithic decorated caves: the use of artificial light in deep caves reduces oxygen concentration and induces altered states of consciousness

“…Caves as portals to parts of the cosmos can also be found in Cherokee Native American cosmology. It was recently emphasized that the Cherokee viewed caves, crevices, and clefts in rocks as entrances to another world, often associated with transformative significance (Tankersley and Weeks 2020;Mooney 1900). Other Native American tribes viewed caves as the place of origin of game animals, where they are under the control of the Master of Animals, as described by Mooney (1900, 433): 'The Indian belief that the game animals were originally shut up in a cave, from which they were afterward released by accident or trickery.…”