How The Milky Way Came To Be

Long ago when the world was young,
there were not many stars in the sky.
In those days the people depended on
corn for their food. Dried corn could be
made into corn meal by placing it inside a
large hollowed stump and pounding it with a
long wooden pestle. The cornmeal was stored
in large baskets. During the winter, the ground
meal could made into bread and mush.
One morning an old man and his wife went to
their storage basket for some cornmeal.
They discovered that someone or something
had gotten into the cornmeal during the night.
This upset them very much for no one in a Cherokee
village stole from someone else.
Then they noticed that the cornmeal was scattered
over the ground. In the middle of the spilt meal
were giant dog prints. These dog prints
were so large that the elderly couple knew this
was no ordinary dog.
They immediately alerted the people of the village.
It was decided that this must be a spirit dog
from another world. The people did not want the spirit dog coming to their village.
They decided to get rid of the dog by frightening
it so bad it would never return. They gathered
their drums and turtle shell rattles and later that
night they hid around the area where the cornmeal was kept. Late into the night they
heard a whirring sound like many bird wings.
They look up to see the form of a giant dog
swooping down from the sky. It landed near
the basket and then began to eat great mouthfuls
of cornmeal.

Suddenly the people jumped up beating and shaking
their noise makers. The noise was so loud it
sounded like thunder. The giant dog turned
and began to run down the path. The people
chased after him making the loudest noises
they could. It ran to the top of a hill and leaped
into the sky, the cornmeal spilling out the sides
of its mouth.

The giant dog ran across the black night sky
until it disappeared from sight. But the cornmeal
that had spilled from its mouth made a path
way across the sky. Each gain of cornmeal
became a star.

The Cherokees call that pattern of stars,
gi li' ut sun stan un' yi (gil-LEE-oot-soon stan-UNH-yee),
"the place where the dog ran."
And that is how the Milky Way came to be.