HAWK  By David Pell 

I had the pleasure and honor of recording and being a friend of Cherokee Indian medicine man, Hawk LittleJohn. 

Hawk was one of the last Cherokee Indians chosen as a child to be a medicine man, receiving the mark of the spider, which signified his status.  He was mentored by the elders – many of whom we read about in history books, and are portrayed in movies. 

One day we are recording some of Hawk’s stories and him playing his flute (he was also a master native American wooden flute maker).  I had noticed the spider tattoo on his hand, between his thumb and forefinger, and asked him about its meaning.  (This was when very few people had tattoos, and if you did, it meant that you either earned the privilege to have the tattoo, or you woke up the next morning – after a night in which you were malleable – to discover it. Or the tattoo was a lifetime reminder that you shouldn’t have given in to peer pressure.) Hawk explained that I was a fly and he was a spider. You see, those of us who are not a medicine man can go and do whatever we want to, just like a fly.  We have the freedom of choice. The spider, in turn, can never leave its web. In other words, a medicine man has many responsibilities: treating people for medical conditions, social worker, negotiator, political activist, etc.  His choice was made for him when the elders saw something special in him as a child. His was a lifetime calling, not something he could just decide to do or not. 

Hawk talked about when he was growing up in the Cherokee, NC area, and how all young Cherokee males were trained from birth in many skills such as hunting, fishing, making clothes and building shelters.  When the young male reached sixteen years of age, he was taken to a certain part of the mountains, equipped with nothing more than a loincloth and a knife, and was instructed he could not go outside of the assigned area. He would have to make his own clothing and shelter and hunt for food. He could not talk to any humans, had to go to a specific place to pray the same time everyday, and would have to stay there for nine months.  “Why nine months?”  I asked.  Hawk replied, “Because that is how long you were in your mother’s womb.” Why even do this?  Through this experience, the child became a man and an active member of the tribe.  Hawk also explained that an adult member of the tribe would secretly watch over the young male during these nine months.  If there was any real danger, they would step in and help. 

On another visit with Hawk, we were walking around a pond on his property and happened upon a rattlesnake. Hitting a snake with a stick directly behind the head, as I was told, doesn’t kill the snake right then, however you have crushed it’s lungs and it will die shortly afterwards. Good thing for a city slicker like me to know, even though I avoid all snakes as much as possible.  Good information to file back in the memory banks. 

Hawk has passed on but was a person that all who met him never forgot. My wife and I miss his friendship, stories, flute playing and conversations. He was truly a unique person and personality.