Beginning of Mother Earth in another time, The Cherokee Spirit people
were in the sky vault. It was getting crowded in the sky-vault, and
the Great Mother decided it was time for spirit beings to become
physical beings and spread out of the sky - vault. There was a great
council meeting of all the spirit beings to decide on the plan. The
Great Mother said, "Those of you who choose to be a part of the
Creation of Daughter Earth will also have to protect her. The Cherokee Spirit people have been chosen to be Keepers of the secrets and Keepers of Daughter Earth and all living things that go over into the physical world. They will be given the power medicine of choice to do this. Other human spirits of tribes will also follow, and they will be given the power medicine of choice to be keepers as well."
Earth at that time was like a large Island floating in a sea and held
in place by four cords of life. The Great Mother said, "These cords
of life" will hold Daughter Earth suspended as long as everything is
held in sacred balance. These spirit beings will include the
four-legged ones, and the winged ones. Everything and everyone will
live in harmony, interdependent on one another for sustained life and
regeneration of life"
It was the first task of the Animal Clan to go down to learn what
they could about this new Earth . The Little water Beetle of the
Beavers' grandchildren went first, Fluttering around, but it could
not find a place to land. Soon it droped into the water many times,
coming up with muddy feet, and that mud became Islands. The Bird Clan
said it wanted to go because they could fly long distances to search
for a place to land. The Great Buzzard flew down, but he was so large
that he tired quickly, and his large wings kept striking the water
and churning up the mud that made mountains and valleys untill he
returned home in the sky-vault. By this time, Earth was dry where
the Animal Clan and the Bird Clan stirred the mud from the water as
Daughter Sun tracked across, The fish Clan said they wanted to go
down into the water and just stay there, but some wanted to be
able to walk on land. What we now call the craw fish did crawl up on
the red clay and he was baked in the hot sun, so that we today call
him the red crawfish. On the seventh day, some of the Animal Clan,
who were hiding in the mud because of the hot sun, come up to take a
look. The first of these was the worm, and he was burned so badly
that we call him the red worm. It was still hot and they called for
the Great Mother to help.
The Great Mother came down on the seventh day, Hearing the prayers,
and brought many beautiful plants and trees to provide the air for
the Cherokee to breathe into their Lungs and become physical beings.
Of course they were not use to breathing, so they had to rest that
first day, but they would work for six days and learn to rest at
night when the Daughter Sun would rest.
The Great Mother was very proud of the spirit beings for the good
work they had done. She asked the thunder beings to strike a tree
so the fragile physic
Author unknown
