Dear Shadow Tribe,
Cherokee oral tradition knows him as Tsul’kalu (also spelled Tsul’kälû’), a name that means “he has slanting eyes." English speakers later wrote it as Judaculla or Jutaculla. I first learned of him while sitting in a coffee shop in Sylva, NC, listening to an Appalachian storyteller years ago.
He is the great lord of the hunt, the spirit who governs the animals of the southern Appalachian mountains. Native hunters addressed him in prayers and rituals for hundreds of years. He hears whatever is said about him, and he can be seen only on his the terms.
His domain is the high ground around Tanasee Bald (Tsunegûñyĭ) near Cullowhee in Jackson County, North Carolina (my stomping grounds when I was younger).
The cleared area once called Judaculla Old Fields was said to be his farm and a place where the boundary between this world and the shadow realms is thin. Cullowhee itself is sometimes explained as meaning “Judaculla’s Place.” Judaculla Rock, named after him, sits on an old trail that once linked the Cherokee town at Cullowhee with his mountain domain.
The best-known story of Judaculla, recorded in the late nineteenth century by James Mooney (Amazon link) from the Eastern Cherokee storytellers Swimmer and John Ax, tells how he came to a widow and her daughter at the old town of Känuga on the Pigeon River.
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| Available on Amazon |
He courted the girl by leaving freshly killed deer at the door. When the mother finally saw him in daylight, she saw a giant with slanting eyes. Her cry caused him to withdraw, and later he required a seven-day fast inside the townhouse before anyone could see him again. One man broke the fast. After that, Tsul’kalu could no longer be seen, though his presence and power remained.
A separate account explains the marks on Judaculla Rock (see my previous post). He jumped from his mountain fields to the valley (a distance of many miles) to drive off trespassing hunters. He landed with his hand on the then-soft soapstone and scratched it with his fingernails. Some versions add that the long line seen today across the face of the rock was a warning: cross it without first purifying and showing respect, and harm would follow. Until the removals of the 1830s, hunters and priests are said to have left offerings at the rock and petitioned him for success in the hunt.
He may be a giant, but he is not a monster. He is the enforcer of the balance between people and animals. Those who took only what they needed and approached his country with respect were left alone or even aided. Those who wasted game, hunted without leave, or broke the required observances found empty traps and little game. The rock itself is treated in Cherokee tradition as a threshold, ordinary ground on one side, the spirit country he controlled on the other.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation continue to regard the place as significant. The landscape around it still carries his name and the legends. The petroglyphs themselves remain undeciphered. There are still a lot of things we do not know about these mountains.
A separate account explains the marks on Judaculla Rock (see my previous post). He jumped from his mountain fields to the valley (a distance of many miles) to drive off trespassing hunters. He landed with his hand on the then-soft soapstone and scratched it with his fingernails. Some versions add that the long line seen today across the face of the rock was a warning: cross it without first purifying and showing respect, and harm would follow. Until the removals of the 1830s, hunters and priests are said to have left offerings at the rock and petitioned him for success in the hunt.
He may be a giant, but he is not a monster. He is the enforcer of the balance between people and animals. Those who took only what they needed and approached his country with respect were left alone or even aided. Those who wasted game, hunted without leave, or broke the required observances found empty traps and little game. The rock itself is treated in Cherokee tradition as a threshold, ordinary ground on one side, the spirit country he controlled on the other.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation continue to regard the place as significant. The landscape around it still carries his name and the legends. The petroglyphs themselves remain undeciphered. There are still a lot of things we do not know about these mountains.
Between Shadows and Light,
Cade Shadowlight ☠
