The Cherokee Story of the First Strawberry: What It Teaches About Anger, Love, and Forgiveness
The Cherokee story of the first strawberry tells of the first husband and wife, who quarrel until the woman walks away toward the east. As her husband follows, strawberries appear along her path. Their sweetness softens her anger, she turns back, and the two reconcile. The story teaches that what matters most is what we do after anger.
Some of our oldest stories carry lessons that are just as important today as they were generations ago. The story of the first strawberry is one of those. It is about anger, love, forgiveness, and remembering what is truly important when emotions begin to take over. It is also the story behind the newest design to come out of our studio.
What Is the Cherokee Story of the First Strawberry?
As our family tells it, there was once a man and a woman who lived together as husband and wife. One day the two became angry with one another and began to argue. Hurt and frustrated, the woman decided to leave, and she began walking away toward the east.
Her husband soon realized he did not want her to leave. His anger faded, and he followed after her, calling for her to come back. But she kept walking. She was still hurt, and she would not turn around.
The Creator saw what was happening and saw the man’s desire to make things right. Along the woman’s path, beautiful plants began to appear to catch her attention. Still upset, she walked right past them. Then strawberries appeared along the path.
The bright red berries caught her eye. She stopped and tasted one, and its sweetness began to calm the anger she had been carrying. As she gathered the berries, she began thinking about her husband and the life they shared.
Her heart changed. Instead of going farther away, she turned around. When her husband caught up with her, the two reconciled and returned home together, sharing the strawberries along the way.
What Does the Strawberry Story Teach?
I have always loved that this story doesn’t pretend disagreements never happen. People get angry. Feelings get hurt. Sometimes we say things we shouldn’t, and sometimes our first instinct is to walk away. The lesson isn’t that we should never feel those things. The lesson is what we choose to do with them.
The strawberry becomes a reminder to slow down long enough to remember the love that existed before the anger. Forgiveness does not erase what happened, but it can open a path forward when both people are willing to take it.
I was always taught that the sweetness of the strawberry reflects the sweetness of life. I think that is exactly why it works in this story. The berry doesn’t argue with her or tell her she’s wrong. It simply reminds her of what is good, and that is enough to make her stop.
Notice, too, that both people move. He lets go of his anger first and follows. She stops, remembers, and turns back. Neither one does all the work. Brooklyn Brown, writing from Birdtown for the Eastern Band’s newspaper, the Cherokee One Feather, points to that same theme across Cherokee love stories: reciprocity, with each person giving what they have and receiving what the other offers.
That is what makes so many of our Cherokee stories important. They are not simply stories from the past. They carry teachings about how we live, how we treat one another, and how we keep our relationships whole.
Why Are There Different Versions of the Story?
If you have heard this story somewhere else, you may have heard it a little differently. That’s normal. Cherokee stories have been carried by families and communities for generations, and details shift from one teller to the next. We are sharing the version our family tells, not the only version. We learned ours from Jules Daugherty, a former Miss Cherokee and an award-winning Cherokee artist with her own line, WaterSpider Creations. Jules works alongside us at Cherokee Copper (you can meet her in our Culture Warriors feature), and it is her telling that you read above.
One of the earliest written records comes from ethnographer James Mooney, who recorded Cherokee stories among the Eastern Cherokee in North Carolina in the late 1800s. In his account, “Origin of Strawberries,” it is the Sun, the great Apportioner, who takes pity on the grieving husband and asks whether he is still angry. When he says no, the Sun sets huckleberries, blackberries, and serviceberries along the woman’s path. She passes every one. Only the strawberries, the first ever known, make her stop. As she picks them she turns her face back toward the west, and the memory of her husband returns.
Other tellings name the Creator or the Great Spirit, send the woman west or down a river valley, or tell the story as a quarrel between Kanati and Selu. Mooney’s record is valuable, but it was written down by an outsider, and it is one snapshot of a living tradition rather than the final word.
What stays the same across every version we know: a quarrel, a man whose anger fades first, a woman who keeps walking, and a small sweet thing that makes her stop long enough to remember.
What Is the Cherokee Word for Strawberry?
The Cherokee word for strawberry is ᎠᏂ, written as ani and pronounced roughly “ah-nee.” You can hear Cherokee Nation elder Tom Belt pronounce ᎠᏂ in a Cherokee-language audio collection he created with Christopher B. Teuton.
That word is where our newest design got its name.
Why We Made the Strawberry Ani Gorget
The Strawberry Ani Gorget actually started with a custom order. A customer from Stilwell, Oklahoma, the town known as Oklahoma’s Strawberry Capital, asked us for a piece with strawberries on either side of a Cherokee Star. Our son, Joshua Stice, who runs operations and production for our studio, was the one who saw more in it. He suggested the strawberry deserved to be a design of its own.
My husband, Greg Stice, took that side motif and moved it to the center of a small 3-inch copper gorget. The result is simple on purpose: one strawberry, front and center, the way it stops the woman on the path.
This year at the Cherokee National Holiday in Tahlequah, we debuted the Strawberry Ani Gorget. It sold out. We made more, and it sold out again, all before it ever reached our website. The people who first saw it loved it for two reasons: it is beautiful, and they knew the story it carried. More than a few of them already knew the story and were glad to see it in copper. And one thing we heard again and again at the booth: every girl from Stilwell needs a strawberry gorget.
A gorget is a fitting form for this story. Engraved shell and copper gorgets have been worn across the Southeast, including by the ancestors of the Cherokee, for centuries. Every gorget we make is designed and made by our Cherokee family in our Oklahoma studio. See the Strawberry Ani Gorget, browse the rest of our gorget collection, or, if love stories are what draw you in, visit our I Love You / Unalii collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Cherokee word for strawberry?
The Cherokee word for strawberry is ᎠᏂ, written in the Latin alphabet as ani and pronounced roughly “ah-nee.” It is the name we gave our Strawberry Ani Gorget.
Who helps the husband in the Cherokee strawberry story?
It depends on who is telling it. In the version James Mooney recorded among the Eastern Cherokee, it is the Sun, called the great Apportioner. In our family’s telling, it is the Creator. Other storytellers name the Great Spirit. The heart of the story stays the same.
Which direction did the woman walk in the strawberry story?
In Mooney’s record, she walks east toward the Sun land, and it is when she turns her face back toward the west while picking strawberries that she remembers her husband. Some tellings have her walking west or down a river valley instead.
What does the strawberry symbolize in Cherokee culture?
In the story of the first strawberry, the berry is what makes the angry woman stop and remember her husband. In our family, we were taught that the sweetness of the strawberry reflects the sweetness of life. Meanings are carried by families and communities, so you may hear it explained in other ways as well.
Is the first strawberry story a Cherokee love story?
Yes. It is one of the best-known Cherokee stories about marriage and relationships. It is less about romance than about what happens after a quarrel: letting anger cool, remembering what you share, and choosing to come back to each other.
What is a gorget?
A gorget is a pendant worn at the throat. Engraved shell and copper gorgets have been part of Southeastern Native adornment, including among the ancestors of the Cherokee, for centuries. Our copper gorgets carry that form forward with designs drawn from Cherokee stories.
Where can I buy the Strawberry Ani Gorget?
The Strawberry Ani Gorget is available at cherokeecopper.com. It debuted at the Cherokee National Holiday, where it sold out twice before reaching our website. It is a small 3-inch copper gorget designed by Greg Stice and made in our Oklahoma studio.
Stopping Long Enough to Remember
For our family, the strawberry story isn’t just an old tale about how a fruit came to be. It is a teaching we still need, in our marriages, with our kids, and with the people we work beside every day. Making it into copper is one of the ways we keep telling it.
When you buy directly from Cherokee artists, you know who made the piece, where it came from, and whose story you are carrying. We’re grateful to everyone who stopped at our booth at Holiday, asked about the strawberry, and took one home, and to Jules for sharing the story with us in the first place.
Carry the story with you. Shop the Strawberry Ani Gorget, handmade in copper by our Cherokee family.