Cherokee Unetlanvhi: The Creator - The Apportioner and the Earth Diver

BY NICOLE LAU

Unetlanvhi ("Creator" or "The Apportioner") is the supreme being in Cherokee cosmology, the source of all existence who created the world and established the sacred order. Unlike the personal, interventionist gods of many traditions, Unetlanvhi is distant and transcendent, having withdrawn after creation to allow the world to unfold according to its own patterns. Cherokee spirituality focuses not on worshiping this distant creator but on maintaining balance with the natural and spiritual forces that Unetlanvhi set in motion. The Cherokee creation story, featuring the earth diver and the great buzzard, explains not only the origin of the world but also the fundamental principles of harmony, balance, and the interconnection of all beings.

The Water World: Before Earth

In the beginning, there was only water. The animals lived in Galunlati, the sky vault above the water, but it was becoming crowded. They wondered what was below the water and whether there might be room to live there. The water beetle (Dayunisi) volunteered to explore. He dove down through the water and brought up soft mud from the bottom, which began to spread and grow, forming the earth.

This earth diver motif appears across many Native American creation stories, but the Cherokee version emphasizes cooperation and curiosity. The animals work together to solve their problem, and the smallest creature—the water beetle—accomplishes what larger, more powerful beings might not have attempted. This teaches that size and power are not the measures of importance, that every being has a role to play, and that solutions often come from unexpected sources.

The Great Buzzard: Shaping the Land

The newly formed earth was soft and wet, too unstable for the animals to live on. They sent the Great Buzzard (the grandfather of all buzzards) to fly over the earth and see if it was drying. As he flew low over what would become Cherokee country, his wings began to tire. Each time his wings dipped down, they struck the soft earth, creating valleys. When his wings rose, they created mountains. The other animals, fearing he would make the whole earth mountainous, called him back.

This is why the Cherokee homeland (the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia) is so mountainous—it was shaped by the Great Buzzard's tired wings. This story connects the Cherokee people intimately to their landscape, explaining its features through sacred narrative and establishing the land itself as the result of divine action.

The Great Buzzard's role also teaches about unintended consequences and the need for balance. His action was necessary (drying the earth) but needed to be limited (or the whole world would be uninhabitable mountains). This reflects the Cherokee understanding that even beneficial forces must be kept in balance.

The Fastening of the Sky: The Four Cords

When the earth was ready, it was fastened to the sky vault by four cords, one at each of the four cardinal directions. These cords hold the earth suspended in the water, and when the earth grows old and the cords break, the earth will sink back into the water, and all will return to the beginning.

This image of the earth suspended by cords introduces the concept of cyclical time and the eventual renewal of creation. The world is not eternal but is part of a cycle of creation, existence, and dissolution. This understanding appears in many indigenous cosmologies and reflects observation of natural cycles: day and night, seasons, life and death, all following patterns of emergence, existence, and return.

The four cords also establish the sacred importance of the four directions in Cherokee spirituality. Each direction has associated colors, animals, and spiritual qualities, and many Cherokee ceremonies involve honoring the four directions as fundamental organizing principles of reality.

The Sun and Moon: Light and Time

After the earth was formed, it was dark. The animals placed the sun on a track to travel from east to west, creating day and night. At first, the sun was too close to the earth, and it was too hot. They raised it higher, and it was still too hot. Seven times they raised the sun until it was at the right height—seven handbreadths above the earth.

This story explains the origin of the sun's path and also establishes the sacred number seven in Cherokee cosmology. Seven appears repeatedly: seven clans, seven directions (the four cardinal directions plus up, down, and center), seven levels of the upper world and seven levels of the lower world. The number seven represents completion and sacred order.

The moon was created to provide light at night, but it was not as bright as the sun. The animals tried to make it brighter, but they could not. This explains why the moon is dimmer than the sun and why night is darker than day. It also teaches acceptance of natural limitations—not everything can be changed, and some differences are part of the created order.

The Three Worlds: Upper, Middle, and Lower

Cherokee cosmology describes three interconnected worlds:

The Upper World (Galunlati): The realm of order, predictability, and spiritual purity. This is where the animals lived before the earth was created, and it remains the realm of spiritual beings, including the Thunderers who bring rain and maintain cosmic order.

The Middle World (This World): The earth where humans, animals, and plants live. This is the realm of balance, where the forces of the upper and lower worlds meet and must be kept in harmony. Humans have the responsibility to maintain this balance through proper behavior and ceremony.

The Lower World (The Underworld): The realm of chaos, transformation, and powerful but dangerous forces. This is where the Uktena (a great horned serpent) and other powerful beings dwell. The lower world is not evil but is wild, unpredictable, and must be approached with caution and respect.

These three worlds are not separate but interpenetrating. Shamans and medicine people can travel between them, spirits can manifest in the middle world, and the boundaries are permeable. The goal of Cherokee spirituality is to maintain balance among these three realms, ensuring that no one dominates the others.

The Origin of Disease and Medicine

According to Cherokee tradition, in the beginning, humans and animals could communicate and lived in harmony. But as humans multiplied, they began to kill animals carelessly, showing no respect or gratitude. The animals held a council and decided to send diseases to punish humans for their disrespect.

Each animal created a disease: the deer created rheumatism, the fish created skin diseases, the birds created respiratory illnesses. The plants, however, took pity on humans. They held their own council and decided that each plant would provide a cure for one of the diseases the animals had created.

This story establishes the Cherokee understanding of disease as having spiritual causes (broken relationships with animals) and spiritual cures (plants as allies). It also teaches that every disease has a cure, that plants are humanity's friends and protectors, and that healing requires restoring right relationship with the natural world.

The Seven Clans: Social Organization

Cherokee society is organized into seven matrilineal clans, each with its own responsibilities and characteristics. These clans are not merely social divisions but are understood as sacred structures established by Unetlanvhi:

1. Aniwahya (Wolf Clan) - Protectors and warriors
2. Anigatagewi (Wild Potato Clan) - Gatherers and farmers
3. Aniwodi (Paint Clan) - Medicine people and healers
4. Anigilohi (Long Hair Clan) - Peacemakers and diplomats
5. Anisahoni (Blue Clan) - Makers of medicine and ceremonial objects
6. Anigotegewi (Deer Clan) - Hunters and runners
7. Aniawi (Bird Clan) - Messengers and scouts

Clan membership is inherited through the mother, and marriage within one's own clan is forbidden. This system ensures genetic diversity and creates kinship bonds across the entire Cherokee nation. The seven clans represent the understanding that society requires diverse roles and that each person has a place and purpose within the sacred order.

Unetlanvhi: The Distant Creator

Unlike many creator gods who remain actively involved in the world, Unetlanvhi withdrew after creation. The name "Apportioner" suggests that Unetlanvhi's role was to establish the order and structure of reality, to apportion roles and responsibilities to each being, and then to step back and allow creation to unfold.

This theological concept is profound: the creator is acknowledged but not worshiped, recognized but not petitioned. Cherokee spirituality focuses instead on the spirits and forces that are actively present in the world: the Thunderers who bring rain, the Little People who help or hinder humans, the animal spirits who must be honored, and the plant spirits who provide healing.

This understanding reflects a mature spirituality that recognizes the limits of human access to the ultimate divine. Unetlanvhi is too vast, too transcendent to be approached directly. Instead, humans work with the intermediary forces that Unetlanvhi set in motion, maintaining balance and harmony within the created order.

The Concept of Balance: Dualism and Harmony

Central to Cherokee spirituality is the concept of balance between opposing forces. The world is not divided into good and evil but into complementary opposites that must be kept in balance: upper world and lower world, order and chaos, male and female, war and peace, summer and winter.

Illness, misfortune, and social conflict arise when this balance is disturbed. Healing and restoration require bringing the opposing forces back into harmony. This is accomplished through ceremony, through proper behavior, through maintaining right relationships with all beings, and through the work of medicine people who can diagnose imbalance and prescribe remedies.

Lessons from Cherokee Cosmology

Cherokee creation mythology teaches that cooperation and humility accomplish what power and pride cannot, that every being has a role in the sacred order regardless of size or status, that the land itself is sacred and shaped by divine action, that balance among opposing forces is the goal of spiritual practice, that disease and healing are spiritual as well as physical, that social organization reflects cosmic order, and that the creator is acknowledged but transcendent, working through intermediary forces rather than direct intervention.

In recognizing Unetlanvhi and Cherokee cosmology, we encounter a sophisticated spiritual system that emphasizes balance, reciprocity, and the understanding that humans are not masters of creation but participants in a sacred order that requires constant attention, respect, and the maintenance of right relationships with all beings.