Appalachian Folklore & Myths Series – The Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald: Tsistu’yi and Cherokee Animal Lore
High above Cades Cove, where the grass opens to wind and flame azaleas bloom in late June, Gregory Bald carries an older name.
James Mooney, the late nineteenth-century ethnographer who recorded many Cherokee stories for the Bureau of American Ethnology, wrote that the Cherokee called the mountain Tsistu’yi, meaning “Rabbit place.” In his short entry on Gregory Bald, Mooney gave one of the most striking pieces of animal lore tied to the Great Smoky Mountains. The rabbits, he wrote, had their townhouse there. Their chief lived there too. He was the Great Rabbit, as large as a deer, and in old times people could see him.
It is only a few lines in Mooney’s published work, but those few lines open a wide door. Gregory Bald was not simply a scenic summit with a later English name. It belonged to a Cherokee landscape where animals had towns, chiefs, councils, songs, and powers. The rabbit on that mountain was not only a woodland creature. He was part of an older world where the line between human and animal was thinner than modern readers often assume.
Today Gregory Bald is one of the better known destinations in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The National Park Service describes it as one of the Smokies’ maintained grassy balds, rising about 4,900 feet and offering views of Cades Cove and the surrounding mountains. Hikers reach it by long trails, and many come for the azaleas that brighten the bald in early summer.
Long before those trails were marked for visitors, Tsistu’yi already had a story.
Mooney, Memory, and the Problem of Sources
For an article like this, the strongest written source is James Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee, published in 1900 as part of the Bureau of American Ethnology’s Nineteenth Annual Report. Mooney worked among the Cherokee in western North Carolina and Indian Territory in the late 1880s and later returned to Cherokee communities. His work preserved a large body of stories, place names, sacred formulas, and historical traditions that might otherwise have been far harder for later researchers to trace.
At the same time, Mooney should be used carefully. He was not a Cherokee author. He was an outsider recording Cherokee oral tradition through the methods and language of his own era. Some of his wording reflects nineteenth-century anthropology. Some details were filtered through translation, editing, and publication by a federal bureau. The oral traditions themselves are Cherokee. The printed source is mediated.
That distinction matters. It keeps the article from treating Mooney as the origin of the story. He did not create the Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald. He recorded a tradition that was already attached to the mountain.
The Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives still preserves the larger James Mooney collection, including field notes, letters, maps, Cherokee materials, and writings connected to his long career. His photographs and papers show the scale of his work among many Native communities, including the Cherokee. For Tsistu’yi, however, the published line in Myths of the Cherokee remains the clearest and most direct written record.
The Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald
Mooney placed the Gregory Bald tradition among local legends of North Carolina. He described the mountain as a high peak of the Great Smoky Mountains on the western border of Swain County, adjoining Tennessee. Then came the Cherokee name: Tsistu’yi, “Rabbit place.”
The rest of the entry is brief but rich. The rabbits had their townhouse there. Their chief was the Great Rabbit. He was as large as a deer. The little rabbits were subject to him.
To a modern reader, that may sound like a strange mountain folktale, but within Cherokee animal lore it fits a larger pattern. In Mooney’s discussion of “The Fourfooted Tribes,” he explained that Cherokee mythology did not draw a sharp, absolute separation between people and animals. In the old stories, animals had social worlds of their own. They had tribes, chiefs, townhouses, councils, and ball games. They could act with intention. They could take offense. They could punish, deceive, negotiate, and remember.
The Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald belongs to that kind of world. He is not merely a giant animal. He is a chief.
The detail of the townhouse is especially important. A Cherokee townhouse was not just a building. It was a communal and ceremonial center, a place tied to town life, council, and public order. To say that the rabbits had a townhouse on Gregory Bald is to place them in a social structure that mirrors human community. The animal world was organized. It was not random.
Rabbit as Trickster
Rabbit, or Jistu, is one of the best known trickster figures in Cherokee storytelling. Mooney described Rabbit as the first and most prominent figure in the animal myths, a deceiver who often schemes against others and sometimes gets beaten at his own game.
In “How the Rabbit Stole the Otter’s Coat,” Rabbit tricks Otter by convincing him that fire is raining from the sky. Otter jumps into the river, Rabbit steals his beautiful coat, and the deception is eventually exposed when Bear discovers Rabbit hiding beneath it. The story explains traits of both animals, but it also shows Rabbit’s role as a clever, boastful, risky figure who survives by wit rather than strength.
In another story, “Flint Visits the Rabbit,” Rabbit tries to destroy Flint, a dangerous figure hated by the animals because he had helped kill so many of them. Rabbit’s plan succeeds, but not without cost. Flying fragments of flint split Rabbit’s lip, explaining the harelip seen in rabbits. Again the story gives Rabbit courage, cunning, and injury all at once.
The Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald is not explained in a full story like those examples. Mooney gives only the place tradition. But because Rabbit appears throughout Cherokee animal lore, the Gregory Bald entry does not stand alone. It sits beside a whole body of stories in which Rabbit is bold, mischievous, dangerous, funny, and sometimes foolish.
That makes Tsistu’yi more than a name. It is a place marker for a larger storytelling world.
The Mountain as Animal Country
Mooney’s Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, published in 1891, adds another layer to Tsistu’yi. In a bear song connected to A’yunini, or Swimmer, one of Mooney’s most important Cherokee sources, Rabbit Place appears among mountain places tied to bears.
The song says, in translation, “In Rabbit Place you were conceived.” Mooney’s explanation identifies Tsistu’yi, Kuwahi, Uya’ye, and Gatekwahi as four mountains where the bears had townhouses and held dances before going into their dens for winter. He explains that these mountains were considered headquarters of the bears.
This matters because it shows that Rabbit Place was not only a rabbit story. It was part of a broader sacred geography in which certain high mountains were associated with animal nations and their powers. The same landscape that held the Great Rabbit could also be named in a bear-hunting song.
The bear song should be handled with respect. Cherokee Nation cultural guidance today emphasizes that not all ceremonial or spiritual knowledge is public, and that traditional medicine and ceremonial knowledge should not be treated as casual material for outsiders to use. Mooney’s published formulas are historical sources, but their publication does not make every part of Cherokee sacred practice open for modern imitation.
For historical writing, the safer and more respectful approach is to explain what the source shows about place, belief, and worldview without turning the formula into entertainment or instruction.
Tsistu’yi Beyond Gregory Bald
The name Tsistu’yi also appears in another important Cherokee place-name context. A 2012 Federal Register notice concerning the Illinois State Museum discussed Chestoe and Chestuee, historic Cherokee town sites near the Hiwassee River in Tennessee. The notice states that the town names were derived from the Cherokee term Tsistuyi, meaning “Rabbit Place.” It also identifies Chestoe and Chestuee with the Overhill division of Cherokee towns along the Hiwassee and Little Tennessee rivers.
That second use of Tsistuyi does not erase the Gregory Bald tradition. Instead, it shows that “Rabbit Place” could be attached to more than one Cherokee location. Place names could travel, shift, or appear in different regions. They could refer to towns, streams, mountains, or districts, depending on local history and pronunciation.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System also preserves Tsistu’yi as a variant name for Gregory Bald. This is useful official place-name evidence. It shows that the Cherokee name has not vanished completely from modern geographic records, even though most visitors know the summit by its English name.
From Tsistu’yi to Gregory Bald
The name Gregory Bald comes from the later settler history of Cades Cove. Local accounts connect it with Russell Gregory, a nineteenth-century Cades Cove resident. By the time early Smokies writers and park advocates described the region, the English name was firmly in use.
Robert Lindsay Mason’s 1927 book The Lure of the Great Smokies still referred to the mountain as Tsistu’yi, Gregory Bald, or Rabbit Place. Mason was not writing as a Cherokee source, and his book belongs to early twentieth-century Smokies travel literature. Yet his use of the name shows that the older Cherokee name remained part of the region’s memory even as the national park era approached.
This layered naming is common in Appalachia. A mountain can hold an Indigenous name, a settler name, a survey name, and a tourist name at the same time. Each tells a different story about who saw the place, who used it, who mapped it, and who had the power to make a name official.
Gregory Bald is not less Cherokee because it later became Gregory Bald. It is more historically complete when Tsistu’yi is remembered alongside the modern name.
A Living Storytelling Tradition
The older written sources are essential, but Cherokee storytelling did not end with Mooney. Contemporary Cherokee storytellers continue to tell Rabbit stories in public settings, classrooms, museums, and cultural programs.
Smithsonian’s Sidedoor episode “Cherokee Story Slam,” featuring Cherokee storyteller Robert Lewis, describes Jistu the Rabbit as a legendary troublemaker and emphasizes the power of stories to keep people connected to culture across time and distance. Cherokee Nation and related cultural programs also present storytelling as part of living cultural education, not simply as old folklore locked in books.
That living context helps prevent a common mistake. The Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald should not be treated as a dead curiosity from a vanished people. Cherokee communities remain. Cherokee language, stories, and cultural knowledge continue, even though not every part of that knowledge is public and not every story belongs to outsiders to retell in full.
A public history article can still do useful work. It can point readers toward the sources. It can identify the mountain’s Cherokee name. It can show how animal lore shaped the understanding of place. It can also remind readers that the Smokies were not empty wilderness waiting to be discovered by hikers and surveyors. They were already storied.
Why the Great Rabbit Matters
The Great Rabbit of Gregory Bald matters because he changes how the mountain is seen.
Without the Cherokee name, Gregory Bald can be described only as a scenic summit, a grassy bald, a hiking destination, or an azalea landmark. Those are real parts of its history, but they are not the whole story.
With Tsistu’yi restored to the conversation, the mountain becomes part of a Cherokee world of animal towns and sacred geography. The rabbits have a townhouse. The Great Rabbit has authority. The bears have mountain places of their own. The landscape is alive with relationships.
This is one of the great lessons of Appalachian folklore when handled carefully. Folklore is not just entertainment. It is a record of how people understood land, animals, danger, memory, and responsibility. In Cherokee tradition, animals were not background scenery. They were nations with their own order. Hunters owed them respect. Stories explained their forms and habits. Songs and formulas placed them in a living spiritual geography.
On Gregory Bald, the wind still combs the grass. The azaleas still burn bright in summer. Hikers still climb toward the open summit for the view. But beneath the modern name remains Tsistu’yi, Rabbit Place, where the Great Rabbit once stood as large as a deer and all the little rabbits answered to him.
That older name asks visitors to look again. The mountain is not only a destination. It is a story.
Sources & Further Reading
Mooney, James. “Myths of the Cherokee.” In Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1897-1898. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45634/45634-h/45634-h.htm
Mooney, James. The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. In Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-1886. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24788/24788-h/24788-h.htm
Mooney, James, and Frans M. Olbrechts. The Swimmer Manuscript: Cherokee Sacred Formulas and Medicinal Prescriptions. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 99. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932. https://archive.org/details/swimmermanuscrip00moon
Smithsonian Institution. “James Mooney Collection.” National Anthropological Archives. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.si.edu/object/archives/sova-naa-1992-34
Smithsonian Institution. “Sacred Formulas, 1887-1922.” James Mooney Collection, National Anthropological Archives. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://sova.si.edu/record/naa.1992-34/ref77
Smithsonian Institution. “The Cherokee Sacred Formulas: Statement of Mr. Mooney’s Method of Working and Scope of His Work.” National Anthropological Archives. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://sova.si.edu/record/naa.1992-34/ref171
National Park Service. “Gregory Bald.” Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Last updated October 14, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/places/gregory-bald.htm
U.S. Geological Survey. “Gregory Bald.” Geographic Names Information System. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/gaz-record/1016082
Federal Register. “Notice of Inventory Completion: Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL.” Federal Register 77, no. 76, April 19, 2012. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/04/19/2012-9465/notice-of-inventory-completion-illinois-state-museum-springfield-il
Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907-1910. https://archive.org/details/handbookofameric01hodg
Mason, Robert Lindsay. The Lure of the Great Smokies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1927. https://archive.org/stream/lureofthegreatsm009837mbp/lureofthegreatsm009837mbp_djvu.txt
Cherokee Nation. “Culture.” Frequently Asked Questions. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.cherokee.org/about-the-nation/frequently-asked-questions/culture/
Cherokee Nation Natural Resources. “Ethnobiology Resources.” Accessed June 13, 2026. https://naturalresources.cherokee.org/ethnobiology/ethnobiology-resources/
Smithsonian Institution. “Cherokee Story Slam.” Sidedoor, May 9, 2018. https://www.si.edu/sidedoor/ep-24-cherokee-story-slam
Smithsonian Institution. “Sidedoor: Ep. 24, Cherokee Story Slam, Related Collections.” Accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.si.edu/spotlight/sidedoor-ep-24-cherokee-stories-related-collections
Lewis, Robert. “Cherokee Storytelling: Rabbit’s Song.” YouTube video. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPoYMuh-unU
Ross, Gayle. How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Trickster Stories. Illustrated by Murv Jacob. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. https://www.readingrockets.org/books-and-authors/books/how-rabbit-tricked-otter-and-other-cherokee-trickster-stories
Ross, Gayle. How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Animal Stories. Parabola Storytime Series. Accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.monah.org/parabola-series
Burkhart, Brian Yazzie. “On the Mysterious 1831 Cherokee Manuscript, or Jisdu Fixes John Locke’s Two Treatises of Civil Government.” Transmotion 4, no. 1 (2018). https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion/article/view/357
Leopold, Robert. “Articulating Culturally Sensitive Knowledge Online: A Cherokee Case Study.” Museum Anthropology Review 7, no. 1-2 (2013). https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/mar/article/download/2051/4568/0
Author Note: This article relies heavily on James Mooney’s late nineteenth-century recordings of Cherokee oral tradition, but Mooney should be read as an outside ethnographer rather than a Cherokee author. I have tried to treat Tsistu’yi as part of a living Cherokee cultural landscape, not simply as an old mountain tale.