The Cherokee people, one of the oldest Native American nations, tell of a man and woman who stored ground cornmeal in a large stone jar outside their home. One morning, they noticed that some of the meal disappeared every night, though they could not tell why.

The couple kept watch through the night and saw a strange, enormous dog coming from the north, burying its head in the meal and devouring it quickly before racing back the way it had come. So the village gathered together and decided to chase away the strange dog that kept stealing their food.

The next night, when the dog returned and began eating the meal again, the whole village rushed out beating drums and shouting as loudly as they could to frighten it away. Startled, the dog bolted, fleeing upward toward the sky, and as it ran, the cornmeal spilled from its mouth, scattering grain by grain behind it.

Higher and higher the dog climbed until it vanished among the stars — but the trail of scattered meal remained hanging in the sky, forming a long, shimmering white band that stretches across the whole night.

From that day on, the Cherokee people called this starry band «the way the dog ran away» — what we know today as the Milky Way, still shining above us as a reminder of that ancient night.