Traditional Story of First Man and First Woman

Selu the Corn Mother and Kanati the Hunter Father

A shortened version of a Cherokee tale with many woven spins

Selu lived with her husband, Kanati, and two grandsons. Everyday, she would go away from the house and return with a basket full of corn. The boys wondered where the corn came from, so they followed her one day. They saw her go into a storehouse, and they got where they could peek in and watch her.
There they saw her place her basket and shake herself. The corn started falling from her body into the basket. They saw that the grain was coming from her body. In this the boys lost their appetite and their gratitude for this life sustaining grain.
Selu could read the boys' thoughts. She told them that she must now die, and that after her death, they would need to follow her instructions so that they would continue to have corn for nourishment.
"After I am dead, you must clear some ground in front of our house. Then drag my body in a circle seven times. Then, you must stay up all night and watch."
The boys did this, but they got the instructions backwards. They cleared seven areas of ground, and drug her body twice in a circle. Where her blood dropped, corn began to grow.
Because the boys were careless in listening to the instructions, corn must now be planted and taken care of in order for it to grow. And to this day, it only grows in certain spots and not the entire earth.

Reflections on Selu

Mostly from the book Selu,
by Appalachian Cherokee storyteller Marilou Awiakta:

In all versions of the compass story respect between genders is an implicit wisdom. Humanity has two genders. To preserve the balance, the genders must cooperate and get along, for themselves, the sake of the community and the environment. Selu and Kanati model this harmony between genders. This wisdom begins in the tangible world with Mother Earth and the Corn Mother, she who sustains life for the people. Selu’s husband, Kanati the hunter, is the mythic father of humankind and the bringer of the equally essential hunting and woodlore to the people.

Strength and tenderness
Tenderness and strength
Balance
In the human dimension

…for the individual, regardless of gender. And for the community in all levels of society, from family ceremonies to government. Woman and man represent cardinal balances in nature.
Regardless of the era in which the ancient story of Selu is told, one of the unchanging elements is that a basic imbalance, a lack of respect, between genders disturbs the balance in the environment, just as such an imbalance in an individual invades the web of his or her life and affects all relationships.
In the spirit of survival, what is needed is a reweaving in consciousness

This is quite similar to some of the last written recent words of herbalist and midwife Jeannine Parvati Baker, a precious teacher now in the world beyond -

New body parables that express the creative power, the wilderness of woman's soul and the holy nature of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and child-rearing are sorely needed. Pleasure and pain must be revisioned through a metaethics of partnership, in light of the new gender complementariness rather than dominion and separation. Our fear of pain, the other gender and a punishing God are related- and traditionally the opiates of childbirth anesthesia, avoidance of conscious heterosexuality and religious dogma have been the strategies employed to distract us from realizing that, from the soul’s perspective, sexuality is spiritually.

A spirituality which recognizes that matter is holy, sexuality is life-force, and the genders are partners can bring ecstasy back to birth, not as hyperbolic possibility but actuality. Living ecstatically in the present moment can bring a greater ability to respond to what presents itself for healing. This is where spirituality, sexuality and ecology all converge.

And again, Awiakta -

Somewhere in the world
Selu is always singing


To my grandchildren Ill say “You aren’t supposed to spy on Selu or her daughters when they’re doing they’re doing their first private work – not even with your ears.” And Ill tell then the story of Little Deer, too, how he is connected to Kanati, the Lucky Hunter.

Without being mean spirited about it – even when the transgressors are bent on murdering her – the Corn mother calmly draws a line in her hearts sweet meal, reminding her sons that to cross it is to separate themselves from their sustainer. The line is the law. To break it will set inevitable consequences in motion. The sons remember the goodness of their own hearts. In a ceremony of sevens, they carry out the Corn mother’s injunctions and faithfully keep the watch. Only then does she return to bless them. Ginitsi Selu endures all things. But she does not put up with all things. If we are reverent toward her and take only what we need, she will sustain us. If we are irreverent and take too much, we separate ourselves from her power and we will die. Ignorance of this natural law is no excuse, because through Mother Earth the Creator reveals them continuously.

As I think of my grandchildren and their future I think of Selu story and that she knew she had sprung from the corn and that she needed to take something of her heritage with her.

These grandchildren have Celtic heritage also, through their fathers who are mountain men, and through part of my family. From what I see of this teetering world these children will need every root of their heritages to survive. Most of this knowledge will be passed through family.
From first contact centuries ago the Celt and the Cherokee got on well together because of what shared: devotion to family; love of the land; reverence for the Creator and natural law; the egalitarian relationship between men and woman; the sense of fierce independence and outrage at foreign invasions which both sexes would battle to repel; the love of ceremony and symbol. All of these combine in a quality of soul that relies on the inner life of the spirit to survive.

As American society searches for new life patterns for the future, it is sensible to study also those patterns that are indigenous to our country and that have proved reliable for the survival of the people. In this study we will undoubtedly find agreeable harmonies – perhaps moving in counterpoint, but harmonies nonetheless. If we listen to each other, many concepts which appear controversial may be rendered less divisive than we thought. When we look at the increasing role of women in the government of America today and the increasing participation of men in family life, we see it not so much as a new phenomenon, but as a resurgence of the indigenous roots of democracy.
When we turn to the Cherokee, who in the historical record appear to be separated from the Iroquoian people by thousands of years, we see links appearing in similarities of language constructs and customs but science and history can only go so far in establishing links

Song of the Grandmothers

I am Cherokee.
My people believe in the spirit that unites all things
I am woman. I am life-force. My word has great value. A man reveres me as he reveres Mother Earth and his own spirit.

The Beloved Woman is one of our principal chiefs. Through her the Spirit often speaks to the people. In the Great Council at the capital, she is a powerful voice. Concerning the fate of hostages, her word is absolute.

Women share in all life. We lead sacred dances. In the council we debate freely with men until an agreement is reached. When the nation considers war, we have a say, for we bear the warriors.
Sometimes I go into battle. I also plant and harvest.

I carry my own name and the name of my clan. If I accept a mate, he and our children take the name of my clan. If there is a deep trouble between us, I am free to tell him to go as he is to leave. Our children and our dwelling stay with me.
As long as I am treated with dignity, I am steadfast.
I love and work and sing.
I listen to the Spirit.
In all things I speak my mind. I walk without fear.
I am Cherokee

The reader will not be a little surprised to find the story of the Amazons not so great a fable as we imagined, many of the Cherokee women being as famous in war, as powerful in the council. – Henry Timberlake, Memoirs, 1765

Early Romans exposed to Celtic tribes were aghast to observe that these “barbarians” as a practice will consult their women in their decisions – even of government and military matters (!). Along with healers, witches, queens, and peasants were women as fierce warriors. According to Diodorus of Sicily, “Among the Gauls the women are nearly as tall as the men, whom they rival in courage.” Ammiamus Marcellinus observed that “the mood of the Gauls is quarrelsome and arrogant in the extreme. In a fight any one of them can resist several strangers at a time, with no other help than his wife’s, who is even more formidable.” From Women of the Celts.