Abstract:
Cherokee myth proffers its own justifications for the peculiarities of individual animal species. The Cherokee myths are closely akin to other \"just-so\" stories in that the animals individual peculiarities result from a mutation of the animal from an existing condition to a condition which is altered. The Cherokee myths deviate in that the animals in the Cherokee myths are not the same animals that exist on earth today, the mythic animals of the Cherokee being larger and more neatly perfect than their contemporaries, and being organized socially and politically like the Cherokee nation.