Cherokee How the World Was Made

The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. Once the world grows old and worn out, all the people will die off and the suspension cords will break and the earth will sink back down into the ocean, and all will be water once again. This is an event that the Cherokee people fear.

In the beginning all was water, the animals were up above the water in Galun’lati, above the sky arch. It was very crowded; the animals were in want of more room. The animals all wanted to know what lay beneath the waters. At last, Dayuni’si, “Beaver’s Grandchild,” the little water-beetle, offered to go down to see what it could learn. The water-beetle went down and darted in every direction upon the surface of the ocean, but there was nowhere firm for it to rest. Then it dove to the ocean floor and returned to the surface with a ball of soft mud. The mud began to grow in every direction until it became an island, now known as the earth. It was later attached to the four cords that were attached to the sky.

At first the entire earth was flat and very soft and wet. The animals were very anxious to get down to this island, so they sent out many birds to search the island for to see if it were yet dry enough. The birds found nowhere that they could alight and all returned to Galun’lati. After a while longer, feeling it was time, the animals sent out The Great Buzzard, which is the father of all of the buzzards that we see now. The Great Buzzard flew all around the earth, he flew very near the ground in his search, but still the ground was too soft. As he reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired from his search, and his huge wings began to strike the ground; everywhere his wings would strike the earth a valley was formed, and as his wings would rise so would mountains. When the animals up above saw this they began to fear that the entire earth would be mountains, so they called for his return, but the land of the Cherokee remains full of mountains to this day.

Finally, the earth was dried enough and the animals came down. It was still dark on this new world, so they got the sun and set it upon a track, just above the surface, and arranged the track so that the sun would go across the island every day from east to west. With the sun being so close to the surface it was too hot. Tsiska’gili’, the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched to a bright red. This heat ruined his meat; this is why the Cherokee do not eat crawfish to this day.  The conjurers raised the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, still it was too hot. They raised it another time, then another, until the sun was seven hand-breadths high and just under the sky arch. This was just right and they left it there. This is why the conjurers call the highest place Gulkwa’gine Di’galun’latiyun’, “the seventh height,” as it is seven hand-breadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes along this track under the sky arch, and returns at night on the upper side to the starting place.

There is also another world under ours that is exactly the same – animals, plants, and people (this is the order in which all living things came to be) – only that the seasons are different. The streams which come down from the mountains are the trails by which we reach the underworld, and the springs at the head of the streams are the doors by which to enter. Before one can enter the underworld, he must fast and cleanse themselves (the Cherokee call this cleansing “go to water”) and have one of the underground people as a guide. We know that the seasons are different because the streams are always warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than the outside air.

When the animals and plants were first created they were told to watch and stay awake for seven nights, just as the young men today fast and stay awake when they pray over their medicine. They tried to do this and nearly all made it through the first night. On the second night several fell off to sleep, on the third night more fell asleep, and then more, until, on the seventh night, of all the animals only the owl, the panther, and a few others were still awake. To these animals were given the power to be able to see in the dark and to move around in the night, and to make prey of the animals and birds that must sleep at night. Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, and the holly, and the laurel remained awake the seven nights. To these it was given to always be green and to be the greatest for medicine. To the others it was said: “Because you have not endured to the end you shall lose your hair every winter.”

Humans came after the animals and plants. At first there were only two, a brother and sister until he struck her with a fish and told her to multiply, and so it was. In seven days a child was born to her, and thereafter every seven days a child was born. They increased in number very fast until there was danger that the world could not support them. It was then that it was made that a woman could not have more than one child per year, and it has been that way ever since.