EarthBow
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Source: As retold by Barbara Shining Woman
Warren
In the long ago time, there was a Cherokee Clan called the Ani Tsaguhi,
and in one family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home and be
gone all day in the mountains.
After awhile he went more often and stayed longer, until at last he
would not eat in the house at all, starting off at daybreak and not coming
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 say all the time."
His parents were
worried and begged him not 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 headmen of the clan.
They held a 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 is always
plenty without work. We will go with him."
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So they fasted seven
days, and on the seventh morning al the Ani
Tsaguhi 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
Tsaguhi 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 animals, because for
seven days they had not taken human food and their nature
was changing.
The Ani Tsaguhi would
not come back, but said, "We are going where there
is always plenty to eat. From now on, we shall be called
Yonva (bears), and when you yourselves are hungry come
into the woods and call us and we shall 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 bear hunters have these songs still.
When they had finished the songs, the Ani Tsaguhi 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.
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