The Cherokee call themselves the Aniyunwiya, the Principal People. Their ancient homeland was the Great Smoky Mountains of the Southeast. In the late 1880s, elders shared many of their sacred stories with the ethnologist James Mooney, who published them in Myths of the Cherokee in 1900.
Their creation story tells that in the beginning all was water. The animals lived above in the sky vault, crowded and longing for room. Little Water Beetle dove to the bottom and brought up soft mud, and from that mud the earth grew.
What This Teaching Shows Us
The smallest one made the world. That is the teaching of Water Beetle: no one is too small to change everything. The Cherokee also teach that the plants agreed to give a cure for every sickness, and that we must take only what we need, give thanks, and keep the world in balance, for all of life is our relative.
The sacred fire, kept burning from generation to generation, reminds the people that the light of the Creator is never lost.
Reflect: What small act of courage could you take today that might change more than you know?
