In 1923, Stanley Newton published “The Story of Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa County.” This is part seven going back to the beginning of the Sault, in a continuing series about the history of Sault Ste. Marie. Punctuation and grammar have been left intact. – Laurie Davis
“And we know he flew from the north, through the great curved stone door on the beach, don’t we?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Well, then, that’s it. Don’t you see, he started from here.” Oh ta looked triumphantly from face to face in the circle.
“Maybe he came from beyond Gitchi Gumi somewhere,” suggested somebody doubtfully.
“No, no, no,” Oh ta replied positively. “Do you think the Great Spirit would ever live in the wretched land of the Kiristinons, where it is always cold, and where the people wander about half-starved from place to place, and eat their meat and fish raw? It is impossible. We are his people, and the people of the great Manibosho.”
“Was Manibosho here then?” another inquired.
“No, he came to us after Gitchi Manito withdrew to his temple. Many moons ago Manibosho lived on earth and was a great War Chief of the Chippewas, and the Ottawas, the Hurons, and the Potawatomies as well. Once, when the winter was cold and windy, with deep snow, the Indians had great trouble in keeping their wigwam fires alight. Seeing them so forlorn and cold, Manibosho brought down fire from heaven, causing the lightning to strike a great tree and set it glowing. From this tree came the sacred fire which the Potawatomies keep ever burning in their head jossakeed’s lodge on the shores of Lake Meetch i gong. This is our time-honored council fire; and whenever the tribes meet ceremonially in the north country, we send to the Potawatomies for the sacred fire and bring it carefully guarded to our council seat. For to tell lies in the presence of that fire is impossible. Animosities die down before it, peace and harmony must prevail where burns the fire from heaven. So we gather before it only when meeting with our allies, never before going on the warpath.
Heavenly Fire is Lost
“Once Manibosho maintained the heavenly flame here at Bowating. But when the accursed Nad o ways, the Iroquois, came against us in might and drove us from Bowating for a time, we lost the fire from heaven and never have regained it. But our Chippewas keep it faithfully to this day at
Chequamcgon. Miz ye, bring me a coal for my pipe.”
“I thought Manubosho lived in the moon,” said Ka ba konse. “He does now but he will come back to earth again when the Chippewas need him. On clear moonlit nights you can see him plainly, with his flag-staff at his side, feathers on his head, with his sword and the pipe of peace.”
“He was a wonderful hero,” they said.
Manibosho Gets Caught in Tree
“He was indeed,” remarked Oh ta. “Once, when he lived at Bowating with his two wives, two great trees nearby were driven together at their tops by the wind so that they continually rubbed and produced a jarring sound that you could hear for a long distance around. Manibosho, either because he wished to put an end to the noise, or because he feared a fire in the forest, for sometimes the rubbing of two trees makes much heat and a fire, climbed up to break the branches asunder. But they flew back again and squeezed him tightly between them.
“He remained between the trees for three whole days, without eating or drinking. In vain he begged all the animals that passed to free him. First came the wolves, and they said, ‘well, well, Manibosho, good enough for you!’ and they ate up his breakfast, which he had left in his hunting – bag under the trees. Next came the squirrels. They began, on Manibosho’s entreaties, to gnaw the trees a little, but they soon got the toothache and quit, saying they were not used to such hard woodcutter’s work. Such like excuses were made by other animals who happened by, until at last the bear came, big and good-natured, and he helped poor Manibosho out of his fix. And then Manibosho went home to his wives, hungry and sleepy, and scolded and beat them, because, as he said, they were to blame for the whole unlucky event. His squaws said truly that they knew nothing about it and had been greatly worried at his absence. But what injustice will not a man commit when he is in bad temper!”
“What was he doing with two wives, Oh ta?”
“Gitchi Manito gave them to him to humble his pride. Manibosho, in the arrogance of power, thought he could keep two wives in peace where the common man has difficulty in handling one. But Manito punished his presumption, for they were forever quarreling in his presence and out of it. So he put one of them away.”
“What became of the other one?”
Wife is Turned to Stone
“I’m coming to that. Once the rapids were up at Nad o way an ing, half a sun’s journey from here by canoe. Manibosho had built a dam there to keep Gitchi Gumi, the mighty lake, in bounds till the time shou’d come for it to breathe. All the beavers in the world were then on the north side of Manibosho’s dam, and he watched it constantly to keep them from breaking through. But something happened to call him to Chequanamegon, and his wife, whom he left to guard the dam against the beavers, not spying them waiting in the waters above, carelessly took a nap in Manibosho’s absence. When he returned he found her asleep, the dam broken, and the beavers nearly all escaped. In his rage he killed her, and some of you have seen her lying on the beach there, turned to a big red stone. Then he ripped up the rest of the dam and flung it far down the lake, so that many of the big stones rolled down here and made the rapids of Bowating, which is to say, the Place of the rapids.
