 Some historians believe the decline in priestly power originated with a revolt by the Cherokee against the abuses of the priestly class known as the "Ani-kutani".Ethnographer James Mooney, who studied the Cherokee in the late 1880s, was the first to trace the decline of the former hierarchy to this revolt.By the time that Mooney was studying the people, the structure of Cherokee religious practitioners was more informal, based more on individual knowledge and ability than upon heredity.