whisky left near a spring was heard first from Swimmer; the ulûñsû'ti
story from Wafford; the locomotive story from David Blythe. Each was
afterward confirmed from other sources.
The story of the book and the bow, quoted from the Cherokee Advocate of
October 26, 1844, was not heard on the reservation, but is mentioned by
other authorities. According to an old Cherokee quoted by Buttrick,
"God gave the red man a book and a paper and told him to write,
but he merely made marks on the paper, and as he could not read or
write, the Lord gave him a bow and arrows, and gave the book to the
white man." Boudinot, in "A Star in the West," [548] quoted by the
same author, says: "They have it handed down from their ancestors,
that the book which the white people have was once theirs; that while
they had it they prospered exceedingly; but that the white people
bought it of them and learned many things from it, while the Indians
lost credit, offended the Great Spirit, and suffered exceedingly from
the neighboring nations; that the Great Spirit took pity on them and
directed them to this country," etc. It is simply another version of
the common tale of decadent nations, "We were once as great as you."