Thanksgiving Thoughts

Chief John Ross




Cherokee Council House at Red Clay, Tennessee, 1835


Mourning dove and woodpecker


Many people fail to grasp why the Cherokees clung so tenaciously to their Smokey Mountain homes and resisted with their very lives being sent west.

Cherokees viewed the land the lived on as a gift from their Creator. It did not belong to them but had been given to them to cherish, tend, and share.

The Way was the way Cherokees responded to life about them. In The Education of Little Tree Grandpa explains it to Little Tree thusly:

“Take only what you need. When you take a deer, do not take the best. Take the smaller and the slower and then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat. Pa-koh, the panther, knows and so must ye. Only Ti-bi, the bee, stores more than he can use….and so he is robbed by the bear and the ‘coon…and the Cherokee. It is so with people who store and fat themselves with more than their share.”


Grape vines and horizon view at River Myst Haven

At River Myst Haven land is a sacred trust. Vital nutrients have been added to the soil and extensive irrigation systems installed. The bounty of RMH is shared and overspills onto those who need it most.

Lynelle Mason
Author, Advent Encounters & soon-to-be published Lenten Encounters (title tent.)