The First Alleghany County Settlers
The first known settlers in prenent day Alleghany County were Native Americans of the Cherokee Nation who arrived about 1300 years ago. The southernmost of the Great Lakes Iroquoian family of nations, the Cherokee occupied the southern Applachian mountains. Present day Alleghany County was located on the eastern boundry near the northern extreme of the Cherokee range.
Of the 10, 700, or so, people living in Alleghany County when the US Census was taken in 2002, only 28 (0.3%) claimed to be Native American. What a shame.
The Cherokee were an interesting people. Their system of law was based on the idea of keeping balance and harmony in both the spiritual and social worlds. It was driven by taking responsibility for wrongful deeds and remedial actions rather than a system of ethics. This concept of balance and harmony was also incorporated into the Cherokee religion.
There was, for example, a liability law for any killing. Not that it was morally wrong to murder someone, mind you, but the death itself created an imbalance which could only be corrected by the killer or his clan accepting responsibility and making a sacrifice of a life to restore balance.
The question was not whether it is right or wrong to kill someone but rather was it worth the sacrifice.
In the religious realm, the soul of the murder victim was unable to enter the next world and was forced to wander the earth as a ghost until balance was restored by the acceptance of responsibility and sacrifice.
On the social side, once the balance was restored the relationship between the killer and the victim's family continued as if nothing happened. No subsequent expressions of hard feeling were allowed; balance had been restored and any friction between them was to end.
If the killer was a man, it was typically his wife's life that was sacrificed. But, the death of someone considered to be an enemy of the clan -- say, any white man or his family living in the clan's territory without permission -- would also work just as well.
General Custer never did grasp the concept.
Of the 10, 700, or so, people living in Alleghany County when the US Census was taken in 2002, only 28 (0.3%) claimed to be Native American. What a shame.
The Cherokee were an interesting people. Their system of law was based on the idea of keeping balance and harmony in both the spiritual and social worlds. It was driven by taking responsibility for wrongful deeds and remedial actions rather than a system of ethics. This concept of balance and harmony was also incorporated into the Cherokee religion.
There was, for example, a liability law for any killing. Not that it was morally wrong to murder someone, mind you, but the death itself created an imbalance which could only be corrected by the killer or his clan accepting responsibility and making a sacrifice of a life to restore balance.
The question was not whether it is right or wrong to kill someone but rather was it worth the sacrifice.
In the religious realm, the soul of the murder victim was unable to enter the next world and was forced to wander the earth as a ghost until balance was restored by the acceptance of responsibility and sacrifice.
On the social side, once the balance was restored the relationship between the killer and the victim's family continued as if nothing happened. No subsequent expressions of hard feeling were allowed; balance had been restored and any friction between them was to end.
If the killer was a man, it was typically his wife's life that was sacrificed. But, the death of someone considered to be an enemy of the clan -- say, any white man or his family living in the clan's territory without permission -- would also work just as well.
General Custer never did grasp the concept.
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