doesn't sit well with me. "Forgiveness" is part of the Jesus myths. Of course the Church would want people forgiving all the ugliness they committed. And they could gain control and riches by selling God's forgiveness. It's disgusting.
Also interesting that this 'legend' is always attributed to Natives. As if they should forgive the genocide and continuing mistreatment and horrific living conditions. Forgive? I don't forgive what has happened to them. It makes more sense that some Catholic money grubbing Pope wrote it.
I think this does a much better job of explaining the story.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_wrote_Two_Wolves_words_of_an_old_Cherokee_Indian
The folk story of "Two Wolves" is attributed to many different tribal people. No published accounts of Cherokee oral history, folklore, or philosophy-of which their are many-include this story and it's basic premise of good battling evil is foreign to the Cherokee worldview.
This story, as many others like it, (even IF it were native in origin) would not be attributed to any "one" person as those are verbal stories handed down for generations.
Please note that this story is Inconsistent with native story forms, Native Stories do NOT contain the 'Moral of the story' at the end like non-native stories do.
For instance:
The story in Native Form would be:
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
Non-Natives would add this to the story:
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
This difference is social-religious between the two cultures and is a good way to tell which stories maybe of native origin, and which are not.
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