HISTORIC OCONEE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA Subject: KANATI & SALU Version 1.0, 15-Dec-2002, H-18.txt **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn Seneca, SC, USA Oconee County SC GenWeb Coordinator Oconee County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/oconee.html Oconee County SC GenWeb Tombstone Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~scoconee/cemeteries.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/southcarolina/oconee.html **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Dec-2002 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at kankula1@innova.net in Dec-2002 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Mary Cherry Doyle, Clemson, SC in Jan-1935 Dedicated To: Dr Edgar Clay Doyle FOREWORD In presenting these fragmentary facts that have come to my knowledge, it is my hope that they may prove helpful in preserv- ing the history of Oconee county for the youth of the land and all who are interested in the history of Oconee county for South Carolina. With knowledge there will follow a fuller appreciation of the great heritage that is ours. I wish to acknowledge a great debt of gratitude to Dr. J. Walter Daniel, an author- ity on Indians of the South. We are indebted to members of the Wizard of Tamassee Chapter S. C. D. A. R. and many other friends. MARY CHERRY DOYLE. January, 1935. KANATI & SALU ORIGIN OF GAME AND CORN Long ago, soon after the world was made, a hunter and his wife lived on Pilot Knob with their boy, an only child. The father's name was Kanati, the lucky hunter and his wife was called Salu, corn. Whenever Kanati went into the woods he never failed to bring back plenty of game. The little boy used to play down the river when Salu cleaned the game. They heard their little boy and they realized that a strange thing had sprung from the blood of the game which Salu washed off at the river's brink. Every day when he went to play the other boy joined him. His father told him to start wrestling with the strange boy and to hold him until they could get there. They took him home with them and partially tamed him, but he was always wild and mischievous, but they discovered that he had no magic powers. Whenever Kanati went into the mountains he brought back a deer or a turkey, so the boys decided to follow him. He went into a swamp where he gathered small reeds for arrows. Taking his bow he went into the mountains and when he opened the cave a large buck came out which Kanaki killed with the arrows he had made. A few days later the boys went back to the cave in the mountains and let the animals out. When the hunter came to his cave, he found all the animals gone. He imme- diately suspected the boys and he opened the lid of four jars out of which came flees, lice, gnats, and yellow jackets. After Kanati thought they had had enough, he relieved them of the insects. When the boys reached home, they decided to kill their mother because they said she was a witch. She knew what was in their minds and said: "clear a large piece of ground in front of the house and drag my body around seven times, and to watch each night until the corn came up. The boys only dragged her body around twice and that is why the Indians only work their corn twice. When the father came home he said where is your mother? They answered that they had killed her because she was a witch. He said that he would not stay with them but would go to the wolf people. The boys trapped the wolves and only a few escaped. In the meantime they had a good crop of corn, and some strangers asked them for some and they gave them seven grains apiece and that is how the corn got started. The Cherokees held the entire Allegheny region from the interlocking streams of the Kanawha southward almost to Atlanta, and from the Blue Ridge on the east to the Cum- berland range on the west. Their chief town was Eschota on the bank of Little Tennessee was considered their capital. Many of their towns were on the head waters of the Savannah, Hiwassee and Tuckasagee and along the whole length of the Little Ten- nessee to its junction with the main stream. As the whites advanced on many of their towns, they were abandoned and others built on the upper branches of the Chattahoochie and the Coosa. In the early days it was believed that they were held in check by Powhatan on the north, on the east and south east by the Tuscaroras and Catawbas. The Saras or Che- raws were equally hostile, and their inevitable enemies the Creeks on th south near the Gulf. On the west the Chicka- saws and the Shawnees turned back the tide of the Chero- kee invasion. While the Cherokees are of Irroquois stock, their rela- tion suspected by Hale and Gallatin, it was established by Hewitt in 1887. The eastern dialect was largely spoken along the towns of Keowee and Tugaloo. As a result of then- exposed position, they were the first to feel the shock of the Revolution, and before its close they were expelled from their territory and scattered as fugitives among the more western towns of their tribe. Consequently they lost their dialect which is practically extinct. The Middle dialect is now spoken by some now living on Qualla reservation. The western tribes speak the western dialect which is said to be the softest and th most musical.