Cherokee Tribe Rule of Harmony

Among all Cherokee Tribes, Harmony among the members of the Tribe is the most important thing. Like most Native American Tribes, the Cherokee Tribes, members were dependent on each other to keep the Tribe productive, help the people survive and help defend the Tribe against their enemies.

Thus, Harmony was a primary necessity in order for the members of the Tribe to work together as one for the benefit of all members. Disharmony was a very serious matter, as it was detrimental to the Tribe and interfered with the ability of the members of the Tribe to work peacefully together, and endangered the cohesiveness of the Tribe to the detriment of all members.

The rule of Harmony was to make sure that no one was allowed to create disharmony in the Tribe for any reason. This included speaking ill of another member for any reason, either to their face or behind their back. Gossip fostered disharmony among the members and created a hostile environment that was detrimental to the Tribe in general, and threatened the much needed Harmony among the people. For this reason, gossip of any kind for any reason was a serious sin against the Tribe.

Everyone was free to have their own religious beliefs and worship in their own way. It was the duty of the elder woman of each household to determine what religious beliefs the family would hold and how they would worship. No one was allowed to speak ill in any way of anyone who held different beliefs or how they worshiped. The main common belief among all Cherokee Tribes is in the Creator, known among the Cherokee as Yowah or Ye Ho Waah. But, there was no rule as to how the people worshiped. This was to maintain Harmony among the members of the Tribe.  

Should anyone create disharmony for any reason they were given one chance by the Tribal Council to atone to the members of the Tribe for their mistake. Should they fail to follow the instructions of the Council, or create disharmony again, they would be banned from the Tribe. This applied to those who engaged in gossip as well, as the damage and disharmony they created among the members of the Tribe was a very serious matter and not tolerated.  

There is a Native American proverb that says, “Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.” In this, the more you gossip about others, the less you will be able to learn from them.