rld. Man, according to Cherokee beliefs, lives in harmony with nature, but he is often called into conflict with nature and with forces beyond his immediate understanding. Oral tradition helped individuals deal with unexplained forces in life and provided hope for the future, while they also distinguished the customs and beliefs of one culture from another: ôOne way in which Native American groups differ is the way in which they narrate stories. These stories also relay the ideas that the future does not depend on what you believe and hope for in the future, but what is going on in the presentö (Oral 2001, 1).
Chanting, singing, oration, story-telling and other forms of oral tradition helped pass knowledge from one generation to the next. These forms of oral transmission included practical information such as survival skills, medicine, cooking, making of clothes, hunting and other information. Elders were often vital for such dissemination of information,
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