Abstract:
In Cherokee mythology and legend there is no essential difference between human beings and animals. From the beginning, all creatures lived and worked together in harmony until the two-leggeds, through aggressiveness and disregard for the rights of the others, provoked the hostility of the four-leggeds, insects, birds, fish and reptiles. Since that time, they have been separate. The difference between them is only a matter of degree. Animals, like the Real People, are organized into tribes and have chiefs, townhouses, councils and ballgames. At the end of their life, they also go to the same Darkening Land. Two-leggeds are the most powerful.