In the long ago time, there was a Cherokee Clan call
the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi (Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee), and in one
family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home
and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he
went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would
not eat in the house at all, but started off at daybreak
and did not come back until night. His parents scolded,
but that did no good, and the boy still went every day
until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to
grow out all over his body. Then they wondered and
asked him why it was that he wanted to be so much in
the woods that he would not even eat at home.
Said the boy, "I find plenty to eat there, and it is
better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements,
and pretty soon I am going into the woods to stay all
the time." His parents were worried and begged him not
to leave them, but he said, "It is better there than here,
and you see I am beginning to be different already,
so that I cannot live here any longer. If you will come
with me, there is plenty for all of us and you will never
have to work for it; but if you want to come, you must
first fast seven days."

The father and mother talked it over and then told the
headmen of the clan. They held a council about the matter
and after everything had been said they decided:
"Here we must work hard and have not always enough.
There he says is always plenty without work.
We will go with him." So they fasted seven days,
and on the seventh morning all the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi left
the settlement and started for the mountains as the
boy led the way.

When the people of the other towns heard of it they were
very sorry and sent their headmen to persuade the
Ani Tsaguhi to stay at home and not go into the woods
to live. The messengers found them already on the way,
and were surprised to notice that their bodies were
beginning to be covered with hair like that of animals,
because for seven days they had not taken human food
and their nature was changing. The Ani Tsaguhi would
not come back, but said, "We are going where there is
always plenty to eat.
Hereafter we shall be called Yonv(a) (bears), and when
you yourselves are hungry come into the woods and call
us and we shall come to give you our own flesh.
You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live
always." Then they taught the messengers the songs with
which to call them and bear hunters have these songs still.
When they had finished the songs, the Ani Tsaguhi
started on again and the messengers turned back to the
settlements, but after going a little way they looked
back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.

Source Unknown