I did my research on the “Bear Legend” myth. It comes from the Cherokee Indian tribe and describes how bears came into being. Up ahead is the story, however it is summarized and in my own words. So it started out as just a regular Indian tribe living by the mountains, going through life, trying to survive, just the regular stuff. This one boy though couldn’t stand it so everyday he would travel into the woods and wouldn’t come back until it was almost dark.
In the same way that a mother makes sure nothing bad is going to happen to her boy. The tribe confronts this boy to ask him why he goes into the woods. He says he likes the woods better, in other words, this place isn’t good enough for me its better up there I am going to stay up there. As a result of this conflict, his tribe follows him up to the woods and some agree that it is better and they stay along with the boy.
Then the people who stayed started growing hair all over there body, so they were known as bears.All in all, everything turned out right.
Cherokee. “Bear Legend.” Native American Lore. StoneE Productions. 1996.
11 November 2008. http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore54.html
