Awi Usdi
Awi Usdi, or Little Deer, is the chief of the deer people in Cherokee mythology and the spirit guardian of all deer. When the animals held councils to decide how to protect themselves from overhunting by humans, Awi Usdi led the Deer council and decreed that any hunter who kills a deer without first asking pardon for the offense would be afflicted with rheumatism, a painful disease of the joints and muscles. Awi Usdi himself would run to the site of each killing and ask the deer's spirit if it heard the hunter's prayer of apology. If the spirit had not heard a prayer, Awi Usdi would follow the