Native American Legends
The Eagle's Revenge
A Cherokee Legend
Once a hunter in the mountains heard a noise at night like a rushing
wind outside the cabin, and on going out he found that an eagle
had just alighted on the drying pole and was tearing at the body
of a deer hanging there.
Without thinking of the danger, he shot the eagle. In the morning
he took the deer and started back to the settlement, where he told
what he had done, and the chief sent out some men to bring in the
eagle and arrange for an Eagle dance. They brought back the dead
eagle, everything was made ready, and that night they started the
dance in the townhouse.
About midnight there was a whoop outside and a strange warrior
came into the circle and began to recite his exploits. No one knew
him, but they thought he had come from one of the farther Cherokee
towns.
He told how he had killed a man, and at the end of the story he
gave a hoarse yell, Hi! that startled the whole company, and one
of the seven men with the rattles fell over dead. He sang of another
deed, and at the end straightened up with another loud yell. A second
rattler fell dead, and the people were so full of fear that they
could not stir from their places.
Still he kept on, and at every pause there came again that terrible
scream, until the last of the seven rattlers fell dead, and then
the stranger went out into the darkness. Long afterward they learned
from the eagle killer that it was the brother of the eagle shot
by the hunter.
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