The Cherokee community is grateful for the blessings and challenges that each season brings. This is modern Native American life as told by best-selling Cherokee author Traci Sorell.
This award-winning seasonal picture book is for 3-7-year-olds interested in contemporary Indigenous stories that are both accessible and universal for all kid readers.
The word otsaliheliga (oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah) is used by members of the Cherokee Nation to express gratitude. Beginning in the fall with the new year and ending in summer, follow a full Cherokee year of celebrations and experiences.
Written by best-selling and award-winning Cherokee author Traci Sorell, this look into the Cherokee community is appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah.
From the Author's Note:
“Cherokee culture places a strong emphasis on expressing gratitude to unelanvhi (oo-NEH-la-nuh-hee), literally 'the one who provides all,' or God. We also show gratitude for one another, animals, birds, plants, fish, the cosmos, water, and land. Cherokee people believe that recognizing and honoring the ways that the sacred and the duties of daily life are interwoven requires effort, ritual, and awareness, but above all, gratitude. I am grateful for the opportunity to provide a contemporary view of Cherokee culture in this book...
Many of us still observe the ancestral and ceremonial ways of life. We also live and work in the modern, non-Cherokee world. Cherokee people are citizens of our tribal nation and of the United States. There are many distinct laws and responsibilities applied to us because of that dual status. We work to maintain a balance between these two worlds.
Otsaliheliga for all who came before us, those here now, and those yet to come.”