# Cherokee stickball team cave paintings



## Timeshifter (Sep 14, 2020)

Stumbled across this story just now. My ears always prick up when caves & tunnels are mentioned.

Basically, the Cherokee stickball team, made their way up to a mile underground to write charcoal messages and pray to their gods...


'Carrying river-cane torches, the men walked into the mouth of Manitou Cave in Willstown, Alabama, and continued nearly a mile into the cave's dark zone, past impressive flowstone formations in the wide limestone passageway. They stopped inside a damp, remote chamber where a spring emerged from the ground. They were far from the white settlers and Christian missionaries who had recently arrived in northeastern Alabama, putting increasing pressure on Native Americans to assimilate to a Euro-American way of life. (In just a few years President Andrew Jackson would sign the Indian Removal Act that would force the Cherokee off their land and onto the Trail of Tears.) Here, in private, the stickball team could perform important rituals—meditating, cleansing and appealing to supernatural forces that might give their team the right magic to win a game of stickball, a contest nicknamed "the little brother of war."

Much of the story appears, reads, sounds like the usual made up stuff.

Bare in mind the source of this, would love to hear the forums thoughts on this story, as the topic is way out of my realm of expertise. Cheers.

Source


> Note: This OP was recovered from the Wayback Archive.





> Note: Archived Sh.org replies to this OP are included in this thread.


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: SearchingDate: 2019-04-10 21:50:23Reaction Score: 3


Out of all the unbelievable details of this story, the one I find least believable is that they would use the date April 30, 1828. I don't know who these stickball Cherokees were, but it is highly unlikely they used the same calendar we use today. For _many_ reasons.


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## anotherlayer (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: anotherlayerDate: 2019-04-10 23:02:24Reaction Score: 1


Someone is having a laugh. If you are trying to tell me that they are able to translate this *syllabary* and in this translation they translated certain syllables as "April 30, 1828", then I need to speak to the manager. I need to speak the manager's manager. I am being played the fool.

However, if someone with Cherokee skills could affirm this translation, well then... it's totally fake


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## Whitewave (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: whitewaveDate: 2019-04-11 19:09:00Reaction Score: 0




anotherlayer said:


> However, if someone with Cherokee skills could affirm this translation, well then... it's totally fake


Cherokee translation sites exist.


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## Mabzynn (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: MabzynnDate: 2019-04-11 19:39:15Reaction Score: 3


I was able to get this to match:

April: ᎫᏬᏂ



Outside of that everything else I couldn't verify but I'm not a native speaker so maybe someone else can help:

day: ᎢᎦ
team: ᏐᏈᎵᏧᎾᏦᏟ
leader: ᏗᏓᏘᏁᎯ
stick: ᎦᎾᏍᏓ
ball: ᎠᎳᏍᎦᎶᏗ


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## Timeshifter (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: TimeshifterDate: 2019-04-11 19:47:52Reaction Score: 0


Fox news are now getting in on the action...

'Archaeologists and Cherokee scholars have teamed up to decode a set of mysterious tribal inscriptions written in an Alabama cave'

Fox


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: SearchingDate: 2019-04-11 20:28:10Reaction Score: 7




Timeshifter said:


> Fox news are now getting in on the action...
> 
> 'Archaeologists and Cherokee scholars have teamed up to decode a set of mysterious tribal inscriptions written in an Alabama cave'
> 
> Fox


Well, if there are two entities I trust in this realm, they are FOX News and Archaeoligists. 

Ultimately, it's not their fault though. I can remember a time in which I would have come across this information and unthinkingly accepted it. They are part of the gatekeepers in this realm; they are just not cognizant in the role they play. My god, this existence is so multifasceted, no wonder so many who decide to look get lost in the fray. But the number of us thinking for "ourselves" is growing....


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## Archive (Apr 26, 2021)

> Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: RecycledSoulDate: 2019-04-12 13:37:54Reaction Score: 2


Cherokee nation still exists today.  A correct Translation should be 100% feasible.  My Great Grandfather was full blooded Cherokee & lived to be 93.  He passed away when I was in my early 20’s back in the 90’s.


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