Owls

RLynn

Active Member
I'm not as familiar as I should be with Cherokee culture. A very close woman friend (who also was of Cherokee extraction and somewhat surprisingly turned out to be a not so distant cousin), said that the owl was regarded with dread, an omen of death. I dearly love to hear the owls in my woods during summer nights, even when they wake me up. Does anyone know anything definitive about the Native American concept of the owl and what it signifies?
 

LegendofJoe

Active Member
I'm not as familiar as I should be with Cherokee culture. A very close woman friend (who also was of Cherokee extraction and somewhat surprisingly turned out to be a not so distant cousin), said that the owl was regarded with dread, an omen of death. I dearly love to hear the owls in my woods during summer nights, even when they wake me up. Does anyone know anything definitive about the Native American concept of the owl and what it signifies?
I read a story many years ago about a Native American woman who married a very handsome man.
On the morning after her wedding, lying next to her was a corpse; she unwittingly married someone
from the land of the dead. She ran from her bed screaming and came across an old woman who
was able to explain to her what she had done and how to get out of the marriage.
Her name was Screech Owl. In the land of the living, she is perceived as the owl itself.
So at least some Native American cultures perceive the owl, or at least the Screech Owl, as associated with death.
 
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