The Water-beetle and the mud
In Mooney’s account, all was water, and the animals lived above in Galûñ’lati, beyond the arch of the sky, where it was very crowded. They wondered what was below the water. At last Dâyuni’si, “Beaver’s Grandchild,” the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see. It darted across the surface but found no firm place to rest, so it dove to the bottom and came up with soft mud, which “began to grow and spread on every side until it became the island which we call the earth.” The earth was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords, “but no one remembers who did this.”
Why the Cherokee country is full of mountains
The new earth was flat, soft and wet. The animals sent out birds to see whether it was dry, and finally the Great Buzzard. By the time he reached the Cherokee country he was very tired, and his wings began to strike the ground: “wherever they struck the earth there was a valley, and where they turned up again there was a mountain.” The animals called him back before the whole world became mountains, “but the Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day.”
The account goes on to tell how the sun was raised “seven handbreadths” high, how only a few animals and trees — the cedar, pine, spruce, holly and laurel among them — stayed awake through seven nights and were given special gifts, and of another world beneath this one, reached by the mountain streams.
How the account says the world will end
Mooney’s text opens by describing the earth as a great island floating in a sea of water, hung from the solid sky vault by a cord at each of the four directions. In his words: “When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again.” Mooney adds that the people he spoke with were afraid of this.
A flood story, too
Elsewhere in the same collection, in a story Mooney titled “The Deluge,” a dog warns its owner that a great flood is coming and tells him to build a raft. The man and his family survive as the water rises over the mountains. This is a separate story in Mooney’s collection; we note it here because readers often ask, and we attribute it, like the creation account, to Mooney’s 1900 record.
A note on place: many Overhill Cherokee town sites along the Little Tennessee River now lie under Tellico Lake — see Tanasi and the TVA waters. That is a separate historical fact, not something these stories describe.
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Checked Oct 27, 2026 · We summarize; follow these for the full history. No hours or fees on this page — check official sites before you go.