At this, Turtle pretended to be very frightened. 'Oh no!' he shrieked. 'Not the river! Do anything else you will, but please, please do not throw me into the river!'
The birds dragged Turtle, struggling wildly and pleading for mercy, down to the river bank, and dropped him in the water. Turtle floundered about, howling as if in terror. Then he sank to the bottom like a ston and lay still.
Eagle and his friends, convinced that they at least put an end to this troublesome creature, flew away in great satisfaction.
No sooner had they gone, than Turtle swam across the river, and haled himself onto a log lying by the opposite bank. He pulled Eagle's feather from his shell and, waving it aloft, shouted, 'Kihe! Kihe!' which is the cry of a warrior who had defeated his enemies.
The animals hiding in the tree heard Turtle's cry of triumph and rushed down to the river to see what it meant. They were aghast to see that Turtle still had possession of the feather.
'We mus make him return it, 'said Otter.
'Who will go and take it from him? Porcupine, you go."
'Oh no, not I !' snorted Porcupine. 'I have put myself in enough danger already. Let Skunk go!' 'I cannot go!' said Skunk indignantly. 'I might drown. Otter is the best swimmer.
Otter was persuaded and swam across the river, to where Turtle sat, proudly flourishing Eagle's feather. As Otter climbed onto the log, Turtle dropped into the water and dived underneath. He came up on the other side of the log, and bit Otter's dangling tail hard. Otter yelped in pain, and jumping back into the water, swam as fast as he could to the safety of the bank.
After this, none of the animals dared to challenge Turtle and the Eagle feather remained in his possesion ever afterwards as a token of his superiority over all the animals and birds. To this day, the Indians claim, the turtle cannot be overpowered by anyone...


there, done... what that says to me, is that turtles are one bad mofos, and that Indians/Natives, respected, and feared Eagles... now, if this was just some stupid book, i could understand the sillyness of it... but its backed by all tribes, and respected by each and every single one of em...