How the World Was Made

              From: Hawkins, Cherokee Legends and Myths ( 1916)
HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE
This earth is a great island, floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four
cardinal points by a huge cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is made of solid
rock. When the world grows old, and worn out, the people will die, and the cords will
break, and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again.
The Indians are afraid of this.
When all was water, the animals were above the Galunlati— beyond the arch; but it
was very much crowded, and they were wanting more room— They wondered what was
below the water; and, at last, Dayunisi, ( Beaver’s Grandchild), the little water- beetle,
offered to go and see if it could learn. It darted in every direction over the surface of the
water, but could find no firm place to rest.
Then it dived to the bottom, and came up, carrying some soft mud, whIch began to
grow and spread in every direction until it became an island, which we call the Earth.
It was afterward fastened to the sky; but no one remembers who did it.
At first, the Earth was flat, and very soft and wet. The animals were anxious to get
down, and sent out some birds to see if it were yet dry; but they found no place to alight,
and they came back again to Galunlati. At last, it seemed to be time, and they sent out the
Buzzard, and told him to go and make ready for them.
This was “ Great Buzzard,” the father of all the buzzards we see now.
He flew all over the Earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft.
When he reached the country of the Cherokee, he was very tired, and his Wings began
to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the Earth there was a valley, and
where they turned up again there was a mountain.
When the animals above saw this, they were afraid the whole earth would be
mountains; so they called him back; but the Cherokee country remains full of mountains
to this day.
When the Earth was dry, and the animals came down, it was still dark; so they got the
Sun, and set it in a track to go every day across the island, from east to west, just
overhead.
It was too hot this way, and Tsiskagili, the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched red, so
that his meat was spoiled, and the Cherokee do not eat it.