DISC-0091 / ITEM-0049

Practitioners’ sacred-formula notebooks and guarded recitations

Cherokee practitioners in Mooney’s North Carolina collection · Cherokee reservation, North Carolina, United States

Disclosure date: 1891
Date precision: Year
Disclosure method: Academic research
Extent: Partial
Record review: Reviewed

View in explorer ↗This record as JSON

Restricted material and access

Cherokee-syllabary formula manuscripts covering healing, hunting, love, protection and hostile magic.

Material type: Restricted scripture
Restricted to: Practitioner-held manuscripts; formulas withheld from laity and rival practitioners in the inspected account
Restriction mechanism: fee, controlled_access, social_sanction
Stated reason: Valuable specialist knowledge; access and acquisition motives are attributed to individual speakers
Tradition origins: Not recorded

Recorded practice status

Unknown

Status as of: Not recorded
Status claims: Not recorded

Disclosure dates, source publication dates, tradition origins and dates of practice are separate.

What this disclosure covers

Acquisition narrative and selected formulas, with printed page locators.

Publication year, not an established first-ever disclosure date.

The source

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Author: James Mooney; manuscripts and explanations from named Cherokee practitioners including A’yûninĭ (Swimmer)
Original publication: 1891
Linked edition: Not recorded
Format: Report
Provenance: academic_fieldwork → archival_collection
Rights of source work: Public domain
Identifiers: Not recorded
Source content hash: Not recorded

Read the Gutenberg transcription’s introduction, acquisition narrative, color symbolism and selected hostile formula on 2026-11-04, using printed page markers. Publication identity and named manuscript origins are documented in the text; the syllabary transcription and translation were not collated against original notebooks.

Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, report year 1885–1886, printed pp. 301–398. Publication year is 1891. Approximately 600 collected formulas are described; this publication selects specimens.

File or recording · Document

Open artifact / recovery route ↗

Artifact ID: ARTF-0009
Inspection: Partial
Inspected parts: Introduction and acquisition pp. 307, 310–312; color system p. 342; hostile formula and explanation pp. 391–393
SHA-256: ed7a908771702f5102075f211cc40b603f7a8c1746907177265f8ecb44bd3650
IPFS CID: Not recorded
BitTorrent info-hash: Not recorded

Complete HTML captured, selected sections read. Hash does not identify the original Cherokee notebooks.

Claims about this item

These claims may cite other sources for the same restricted item. Supporting and contradicting evidence remain separate.

CLM-0173 · Content

Mooney’s selection draws on practitioner-written Cherokee-syllabary notebooks containing healing, hunting, love and hostile formulas, rather than on an exclusively oral tradition.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: pp. 307, 312
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked the cited passage. Source attribution, historical scope and artifact inspection limits apply; no independent corroboration is asserted.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

CLM-0174 · Content

The account says practitioners guarded their manuscripts from laity and rivals and whispered recitations too softly for clients to understand.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: p. 310
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked the cited passage. Source attribution, historical scope and artifact inspection limits apply; no independent corroboration is asserted.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

CLM-0175 · Historical practice

Swimmer initially withheld hunting songs as remunerated specialist knowledge; Mooney reports hunters sometimes paid five dollars for one song.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: p. 311
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked the cited passage. Source attribution, historical scope and artifact inspection limits apply; no independent corroboration is asserted.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

CLM-0176 · Historical practice

Mooney describes threatening to replace Swimmer for withholding information, appealing to his professional standing, and later buying his notebook after providing a replacement for copying.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: pp. 311–312
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

This records the collector’s own acquisition account, including pressure and negotiation; it does not establish unrestricted voluntary permission from all practitioners.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

CLM-0177 · Content

The printed hostile formula attributed to Swimmer names an intended victim and clan and associates black imagery with death and blue with defeat.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: pp. 391–393
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked as formula content and attributed intention, not as proof of lethal efficacy or of an actual victim’s death.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

CLM-0178 · Content

The book’s stated color scheme associates east/red with success, north/blue with defeat, west/black with death and south/white with peace.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: p. 342, Color Symbolism
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Local system as reported by this source. Mooney explicitly notes variation between tribes; no universal Indigenous color code follows.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

CLM-0179 · Suppression

Mooney reports that rival practitioners pressed Swimmer to stop disclosures and challenged his reputation; some feared the knowledge would be taken to Washington and locked away.

Claim support: Single source
Record review: Reviewed
Period: 1887–1888 collection, published 1891
Locators: SRC-0101: p. 311
Sources counted as independent: Not recorded

Suppression mechanism: community_pressure

Supporting sources

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees ↗ (SRC-0101; authenticity: Probable)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Specific reported attempts to halt this disclosure, not an inference that all missing knowledge is suppressed. The concern about archival loss is recorded in the source.

SRC-0101: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

Evidence qualifications

SRC-0101 · source_authenticity_probable: Source authenticity is probable; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
SRC-0101 · source_without_content_hash: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
ARTF-0009 · artifact_partial: Artifact inspection is partial; use only its recorded inspected portions.

Reviewed means checked against a source. It does not establish source authenticity, independent corroboration or present-day practice.

Item notes

Scope basis: guarded manuscripts and deliberately inaudible recitations (CLM-0174), with withholding and pressure documented separately. The printed selection is not the entire collection. Mooney’s translations, interpretations and acquisition account remain attributed.