ABSTRACT
While supporting a variety of plant, animal, and human life, the mountainous terrain of southern Appalachia is also a fertile ground for stories. The vital role of the natural environment in Smith’s fictional world as well as in the traditional Cherokee stories is closely interwoven with the importance of storytelling in maintaining cultural continuity. This chapter stresses the role of language and the oral tradition as vital links with the past and then analyzes further connections between Smith’s novels and Cherokee stories. These parallels include references regarding the sun, water, corn, the witches named the Raven Mocker and the Spear Finger, the Little People, and the booger men. The conclusion examines the relationship between Granny Younger and Red Emmy in Oral History within the context of Cherokee beliefs about conjurors and witches. Such correspondences indicate that the cultural intermarriage between Native American and European American traditions in the southern Appalachians has been ongoing.
