Origin of the Bear
Long ago there was a Cherokee clan called the Ani’- Tsa’guhi, and in one family of this clan was a
boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he went
oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all, but started off at
daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded, but that did no good, and
the boy still went every day until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow
out all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so
much in the woods that he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, ‘I find plenty to eat there,
and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements, and pretty soon I am going
into the woods to stay all the time.’ His parents were worried and begged him not to leave them,
but he said, ‘It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so
that I can not live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you
will never have to work for it; but if you want to come you must first fast seven days.’
The father and mother talked it over and then told the headman of the clan. They held council
about the matter and after everything had been said they decided: ‘Here we must work hard
and have not always enough. There he says there is always plenty without work. We will
go with him.’ So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning all the
Ani’- Tsa’guhi left the settlement and started for the mountains as the boy led the way.
When the people of the other towns heard of it they were very sorry and sent their headmen
to persuade the Ani’- Tsa’guhi to stay at home and not go into the woods to live.
The messengers found them already on the way, and were surprised to notice that
their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of the animals, because
for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was changing.
The Ani’-Tsa’guhi would not come back, but said, ‘We are going where there is always
plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called yanu (bears), and when you yourselves are
hungry come into the woods and call us and we shall come to give you our own flesh.
You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always.’ Then they taught the
messengers the songs with which to call them, and the bear hunters have these songs still.
When they had finished the songs the Ani’- Tsa’guhi started on again and the
messengers turned back to the settlements, but after going a little way they
looked back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.
Excerpt from “History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas
boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he went
oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all, but started off at
daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded, but that did no good, and
the boy still went every day until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow
out all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so
much in the woods that he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, ‘I find plenty to eat there,
and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements, and pretty soon I am going
into the woods to stay all the time.’ His parents were worried and begged him not to leave them,
but he said, ‘It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so
that I can not live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you
will never have to work for it; but if you want to come you must first fast seven days.’
The father and mother talked it over and then told the headman of the clan. They held council
about the matter and after everything had been said they decided: ‘Here we must work hard
and have not always enough. There he says there is always plenty without work. We will
go with him.’ So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning all the
Ani’- Tsa’guhi left the settlement and started for the mountains as the boy led the way.
When the people of the other towns heard of it they were very sorry and sent their headmen
to persuade the Ani’- Tsa’guhi to stay at home and not go into the woods to live.
The messengers found them already on the way, and were surprised to notice that
their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of the animals, because
for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was changing.
The Ani’-Tsa’guhi would not come back, but said, ‘We are going where there is always
plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called yanu (bears), and when you yourselves are
hungry come into the woods and call us and we shall come to give you our own flesh.
You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always.’ Then they taught the
messengers the songs with which to call them, and the bear hunters have these songs still.
When they had finished the songs the Ani’- Tsa’guhi started on again and the
messengers turned back to the settlements, but after going a little way they
looked back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.
Excerpt from “History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas
