THE
LEGEND OF
THE CHEROKEE ROSE

There is a legend among the Cherokee Peoples
that the Cherokee Rose is the Tears of our women, that during the removals, or the Trail Of Tears, the women were weeping so badly they were losing their strength. The Elders gathered in the evening, and prayed to GAlunlati (heaven) to send the women a sign to lift their spirits, and make them strong enough to help the little one"s survive, and one day rebuild The Cherokee Nation.

The Great One spoke in a voice soft and compassionate and said

"yes, I have seen the sorrow of the women,
and I can help them keep their strength,
and to help the children.
Tell the women in the morning,
to look back to where their tears have fallen to the ground."

The next day, the Old Men told the women to look back for a sign from The Great One, and there upon the ground, they watched as each tear they had cried had become a rose, A White Rose, a beautiful blossom with five white pedals, to represent, the tears of the women, and in the center was a pile of gold to remind them of the gold the white man wanted when his greed drove the Cherokee People from their ancestral home.

Then the Great One said,
There will be seven leaves for each of the Seven Clans of the Cherokee,
and I will make it a strong plant to spread all over,
and I will put stickers on every stem to protect it from anything
that tries to move it away.

The Women watched as a blossom formed so beautiful they forgot to weep, and they felt beautiful and strong.    By evening they saw many white blossoms as far as they could see. The women began to think about their strength given to them, to bring up their children in the New Cherokee Nation.  They watched as the plant marked the brutal Trail Of Tears, and they knew it was a gift from The Great One, and that the Cherokee Rose was strong enough to reclaim the
land of their People............

~Cherokee Rose Wolfe~