The Shaconage

“Do the spirits of Cherokee warriors haunt the peaks and ravines of the Shaconage, their name for the “mountains of the blue smoke?” Is Tsistu’yi still the home of the Great Rabbit, chief of the rabbit tribe, or did he retreat in confusion when the white man bestowed the name “Gregory Bald’ on his home? And was the Uktena, the large snake monster that hid in the high mountain passes waiting to pounce on unsuspecting travelers, really killed by the Shawnee magician, Aganuni’tsi, or does it lurk in some secret den waiting for the white man’s era to pass? And what of the White Bear, chief of the bears? Is he long gone from Kuwa’hi, the Mulberry Place, or does he still lead the bears in the timeless dance before winter’s hibernation?”
~J.R.Tate