In Cherokee mythology, what insect brought the first land from the water?

In Cherokee mythology, the water beetle brought the first land from the water. In the creation story, the animals lived above a watery world and needed somewhere to live. Water Beetle dove to the bottom, gathered mud, and carried it back to the surface. The mud spread outward and became the first island.

The newly formed land was initially soft and unstable. Buzzard was sent to investigate and, as he flew low over it, the movement of his wings shaped the landscape into mountains, valleys, and plains. The animals could then settle on the island, although the story continued with the arrival and adjustment of the sun.

This answer is sometimes confused with the beaver or turtle, animals that appear in creation traditions from other Indigenous cultures. In the Cherokee account, however, the water beetle is the small creature specifically credited with retrieving the mud that became land. The story is recorded in James Mooney’s early ethnographic collections of Cherokee traditions.