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Bear Man
Cherokee Legend
One springtime morning a Cherokee named Whirlwind told his wife
goodbye and left his village to go up in the Smoky Mountains to hunt
for wild game. In the forest he saw a black bear and wounded it with
an arrow. The bear turned and started to run away, but the hunter
followed, shooting one arrow after another into the animal without
bringing it down. Whirlwind did not know that this bear possessed
secret powers, and could talk and read the thoughts of people.
At last the black bear stopped and pulled the arrows out of his body
and gave them to Whirlwind. "It is of no use for you to shoot at me,"
he said. "You can't kill me. Come with me and I will show you how
bears live."
"This bear may kill me," Whirlwind said to himself, but the bear read
his thoughts and said: "No, I will not hurt you.
"How can I get anything to eat if I go with this bear?" Whirlwind
thought, and again the bear knew what the hunter was thinking, and
said: "I have plenty of food."
Whirlwind decided to go with the bear. They walked until they came to
a cave in the side of a mountain, and the bear said: "This is not
where I live, but we are holding a council here and you can see what
we do." They entered the cave, which widened as they went farther in
until it was as large as a Cherokee town- house. It was filled with
bears, old and young, brown and black, and one large white bear who
was the chief. Whirlwind sat down in a corner beside the black bear
who had brought him inside, but soon the other bears scented his
presence.
"What is that bad smell of a man?" one asked, but the bear chief
answered: "Don't talk so. It is only a stranger come to see us. Let
him alone."
The bears began to talk among themselves, and Whirlwind was
astonished that he could understand what they were saying. They were
discussing the scarcity of food of all kinds in the mountains, and
were trying to decide what to do about it. They had sent messengers
in all directions, and two of them had returned to report on what
they had found. In a valley to the south, they said, was a large
stand of chestnuts and oaks, and the ground beneath them was covered
with mast. Pleased at this news, a huge black bear named Long Hams
announced that he would lead them in a dance.
While they were dancing, the bears noticed Whirlwind's bow and
arrows, and Long Hams stopped and said: "This is what men use to kill
us. Let us see if we can use them. Maybe we can fight them with their
own weapons."
Long Hams took the bow and arrows from Whirlwind. He fitted an arrow
and drew back the sinew string, but when he let go, the string caught
in his long claws and the arrow fell to the ground. He saw that he
could not use the bow and arrows and gave them back to Whirlwind. By
this time, the bears had finished their dance, and were leaving the
cave to go to their separate homes.
Whirlwind went out with the black bear who had brought him there, and
after a long walk they came to a smaller cave in the side of the
mountain. "This is where I live," the bear said, and led the way
inside. Whirlwind could see no food anywhere in the cave, and
wondered how he was going to get something to satisfy his hunger.
Reading his thoughts, the bear sat up on his hind legs and made a
movement with his forepaws. When he held his paws out to Whirlwind
they were filled with chestnuts. He repeated this magic and his paws
were filled with huckleberries which he gave to Whirlwind. He then
presented him with blackberries, and finally some acorns.
"I cannot eat acorns," Whirlwind said. "Besides you have given me
enough to eat already."
For many moons, through the summer and winter, Whirlwind lived in the
cave with the bear. After a while he noticed that his hair was
growing all over his body like that of a bear. He learned to eat
acorns and act like a bear, but he still walked upright like a man.
On the first warm day of spring the bear told Whirlwind that he had
dreamed of the Cherokee village down in the valley. In the dream he
heard the Cherokees talking of a big hunt in the mountains.
"Is my wife still there waiting for me?" Whirlwind asked.
"She awaits your return," the bear replied. "But you have become a
bear man. If you return you must shut yourself out of sight of your
people for seven days without food or drink. At the end of that time
you will become like a man again."
A few days later a party of Cherokee hunters came up into the
mountains. The black bear and Whirlwind hid themselves in the cave,
but the hunters' dogs found the entrance and began to bark furiously.
"I have lost my power against arrows," the bear said. "Your people
will kill me and take my skin from me, but they will not harm you.
They will take you home with them. Remember what I told you, if you
wish to lose your bear nature and become a man again.
The Cherokee hunters began throwing lighted pine knots inside the
cave.
"They will kill me and drag me outside and cut me in pieces," the
bear said. "Afterwards you must cover my blood with leaves. When they
are taking you away, if you look back you will see something."
As the bear had foretold, the hunters killed him with arrows and
dragged his body outside and took the skin from it and cut the meat
into quarters to carry back to their village. Fearing that they might
mistake him for another bear, Whirlwind remained in the cave, but the
dogs continued barking at him. When the hunters looked inside they
saw a hairy man standing upright, and one of them recognized
Whirlwind.
Believing that he had been a prisoner of the bear, they asked him if
he would like to go home with them and try to rid himself of his bear
nature. Whirlwind replied that he would go with them, but explained
that he would have to stay alone in a house for seven days without
food or water in order to become as a man again.
While the hunters were loading the meat on their backs, Whirlwind
piled leaves over the place where they had killed the bear, carefully
covering the drops of blood. After they had walked a short distance
down the mountain, Whirlwind looked behind him. He saw a bear rise up
out of the leaves, shake himself, and go back into the cave.
When the hunters reached their village, they took Whirlwind to an
empty house, and obeying his wishes barred the entrance door.
Although he asked them to say nothing to anyone of his hairiness and
his bear nature, one of the hunters must have told of his presence in
the village because the very next morning Whirlwind's wife heard that
he was there.
She hurried to see the hunters and begged them to let her see her
long missing husband.
"You must wait for seven days," the hunters told her. "Come back
after seven days, and Whirlwind will return to you as he was when he
left the village twelve moons ago."
Bitterly disappointed, the woman went away, but she returned to the
hunters each day, pleading with them to let her see her husband. She
begged so hard that on the fifth day they took her to the house,
unfastened the door, and told Whirlwind to come outside and let his
wife see him.
Although he was still hairy and walked like a bear on hind legs,
Whirlwind's wife was so pleased to see him again that she insisted he
come home with her. Whirlwind went with her, but a few days later he
died, and the Cherokees knew that the bears had claimed him because
he still had a bear's nature and could not live like a man. If they
had kept him shut up in the house without food until the end of the
seven days he would have become like a man again. And that is why in
that village on the first warm and misty nights of springtime, the
ghosts of two bears--one walking on all fours, the other walking
upright--are still seen to this day.
"There is an Indian legend which says when a human dies there is a bridge they must cross to enter into heaven. At the head of that bridge waits every animal that human encountered during their lifetime. The animals, based upon what they know of this person, decide which humans may cross the bridge.... and which are turned away..."
- Unknown
In 1998, 11 Mexican wolves were transferred to remote sites in Apache National Forest, the first in the wild in almost three decades. After undergoing acclimation in large enclosures for several weeks, the wolves are to be released to disperse in a 7,000-square-mile recovery area, comprised of Apache and Gila National Forests in Arizona and New Mexico. As with wolves reintroduced in Yellowstone and central Idaho, these Mexican wolves are designated "non-essential, experimental" to allow more flexibility in management. The recovery goal for Mexican wolves is to maintain the captive breeding program while establishing a self-sustaining wild population of at least 100 animals in the species' historic range.
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