I've been trying to get a handle on the traditional Cherokee calendar because it has its own Wikipedia article¹. This hasn't been easy.
I recently wrote programmes to interconvert traditional Polynesian and Old World calendars, but I my decisions on how to go about it are highly questionable because it forces Polynesian concepts of time into an alien framework.
For Native American and First Nations timekeeping, such a task appears impossible.
¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_calendar
1/12
Part of this impossibility comes from colonialism. White people were much more effective and thorough in destroying the culture and traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples of North America than of Polynesia.
Quite possibly related: the Cherokee, Haida, Ojibwe, Cree, and Mohawk all use a cycle of 13×28-day months... which I consistently see referred to as a "lunar cycle"
http://theucn.com/ceremonies.html
https://haidalanguage.blogspot.com/2011/11/haida-calendar.html
https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/the-haida-calendar-LUcAJnGDhL
2/12
The issue here is that 28 days doesn't match up with any lunar cycles. The synodic month is a shade over 29½ days long, so any timekeeping system that synchronises with the phases of the moon will have months of 29 or 30 days.
The sidereal and draconic months are just over 27 days long; months that synchronise with those moon cycles will occasionally be 28 days long, but will more often have 27 days.
3/12
But a 28-day month has 4 Babylonian weeks, and thus synchronises well with the system brought to North America by colonisers.
It is thus my suspicion that the 28-day month is a relatively recent innovation, developed to try and make traditional lunar timekeeping conform to the system of the colonisers.
4/12
But that's not to say I am definitely correct. The 13×28 system also maps to turtle shells; there are always 13 big scales in the middle of a turtle's back, and 28 smaller scales around the edge. 13×28=364, just one day short of a normal solar year.
So was the 13×28 system a later innovation? Or was it a solar calendar original to Indigenous North America that never had anything to do with the moon, and was later misinterpreted as a lunisolar calendar?
I don't know.
5/12
But here's what we do know.
The Cherokee and Haida, like the Polynesians, Walabunnba, and pre-Zoroastrian Iranians, recognised two alternating seasons. Unlike the Polynesians, they did have a concept of years, and would express their ages by saying how many winters they had lived through.
The Haida definitely measured time by the phases of the moon before colonisation. If the Cherokee did as well, that knowledge has been lost.
6/12
The Haida had a set of summer months and a set of winter months. Rather than the 6th month being followed by the 7th month, as in the Old World, in the Haida reckoning the 6th month of summer was followed by the 1st month of winter, and if there was a leap month, it wasn't numbered.
One of the winter months is called Qō'ao giā’ñas, meaning "standing to defecate", because there is so much snow on the ground you have to stand up to lay a poo.
(The American Anthropologist 6 Apr 1903)
7/12
Traditional Masset Haida months:
• A‘nsga-i la’qoñas: Berries forming
• Wa’a‘gwalga-i: Still a bit nippy
• Qoñqō‘ns: Great Month
• S‘ān gias: Orca Month
• K!is’a‘ls: Animals getting fat
• Qa‘lga qoña’s: Ice Month
• Q!e‘daq!edas: Extra month
• Djā qoña’s: [Bears] Digging Month
• Qō'ao giā’ñas: Standing to defecate
• ‘gitu‘n qoña's: Goose Month
• Tān qoña's: Black Bear Month
• Xīt gias: Laughing Goose Month
• Wīt gias: Russet-back Thrush Month
8/12
The Cherokee have 13 names for their various traditional months. While the months fell in a definite cyclic order, I suspect that in the old system, they were named according to climate, which plants were in bloom, and which animals were active, as is the case throughout Polynesia.
They also have an entirely different set of names for the Gregorian months, which reflect the weather and agricultural activities which take place in those months.
http://www.theucn.com/ceremonies.html
9/12
13 traditional dances were held throughout the year, of which I get the impression seven were major and six were minor.
Like the Haida, the Cherokee recognised two seasons, which seem to have run from equinox to equinox.
10/12
Some sources I found said that the Cherokee year begins with Nuwatiegawa, the Great New Moon Festival, which takes place on a new moon near the southward equinox and is similar to the Jewish system. Others say it begins with the new moon close to the northward equinox, likes the Samaritans. My sources which favour Nuwatiegawa seem to have been written by people more directly familiar with Cherokee traditions.
https://mixedcherokee.tripod.com/id1.html
http://www.keetoowahsociety.org/ceremony.htm
11/12
To close out, I came across this page offering appropriate Cherokee greetings for the New Year: https://www.yourgrandmotherscherokee.com/blog/happy-new-year
"Ulihelisdi Atse Udetiyvsgv" literally means "Happy New Year", but it's a calque from English.
Instead, the writer offers this:
• "Nvnohi tsaksesdesdi!" - "You be careful on the road!" (singular)
• Nvnohi datsaksesdesdi!" - "All of ye be careful on the road!" (plural)
Thank you for reading.
12/12