Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 6 | Page 9

island--Michillimackinack (place of great
dancing spirits). Arch Rock is the place that Manitou built to reach his
home from Sunrise Land the better. There were many such monuments
of divinities in the north. They are met with all about the lakes and in
the wooded wilderness, the most striking one being the magnificent
spire of basalt in the Black Hills region of Wyoming. It is known as
Devil's Tower, or Mateo's Tepee, and by the red men is held to be the
wigwam of a were-animal that can become man at pleasure. This
singular rock towers above the Belle Fourche River to a height of eight
hundred feet.
Deep beneath Mackinack was a stately and beautiful cavern hall where

spirits had their revels. An Indian who got leave to quit his body saw it
in company with one of the spirits, and spread glowing reports of its
beauties when he had clothed himself in flesh again. When Adam and
Eve died they, too, became spirits and continued to watch the home of
Manitou.
Now, there is another version of this tradition which gives the, original
name of the island as Moschenemacenung, meaning "great turtle." The
French missionaries and traders, finding the word something too large a
mouthful, softened it to Michillimackinack, and, when the English
came, three syllables served them as well as a hundred, so Mackinack it
is to this day. Manitou, having made a turtle from a drop of his own
sweat, sent it to the bottom of Lake Huron, whence it brought a
mouthful of mud, and from this Mackinack was created. As a reward
for his service the turtle was allowed to sleep there in the sun forever.
Yet another version has it that the Great Spirit plucked a sand-grain
from the primeval ocean, set it floating on those waters, and tended it
until it grew so large that a young wolf, running constantly, died of old
age before reaching its limits. The sand became the earth. Prophecy has
warned the Winnebagoes that Manibozho (Michabo or Hiawatha) shall
smite by pestilence at the end of their thirteenth generation. Ten are
gone. All shall perish but one pure pair, who will people the recreated
world. Manibozho, or Minnebojou, is called a "culture myth," but the
Indians have faith in him. They say that he lies asleep on the north
shore of Lake Superior, beneath the "hill of four knobs," known as the
Sleeping Giant. There offerings are made to him, and it was a hope of
his speedy rising that started the Messiah craze in the West in 1890.

LAKE SUPERIOR WATER GODS
There were many water gods about Lake Superior to whom the Indians
paid homage, casting implements, ornaments, and tobacco into the
water whenever they passed a spot where one of these manitous sat
enthroned. At Thunder Cape, on the north shore, lies Manibozho, and
in the pillared recess of La Chapelle, among the Pictured Rocks, dwelt
powerful rulers of the storm to whose mercy the red men commended
themselves with quaint rites whenever they were to set forth on a
voyage over the great unsalted sea. At Le Grand Portal were hidden a
horde of mischievous imps, among whose pranks was the repetition of

every word spoken by the traveller as he rested on his oars beneath this
mighty arch. The Chippewas worked the copper mines at Keweenaw
Point before the white race had learned of a Western land, but they did
so timidly, for they believed that a demon would visit with injury or
death the rash mortal who should presume to pillage his treasure, unless
he had first bestowed gifts upon him. Even then they went ashore with
fear, lighted fires around a surface of native copper, hacked off a few
pounds of the softened metal, and ran to their canoes without looking
behind them.
There was another bad manitou at the mouth of Superior Bay, where
conflicting currents make a pother of waters. This spirit sat on the
bottom of the lake, gazing upward, and if any boatman ventured to
cross his domain without dropping a pipe or beads or hatchet into it,
woe betide him, for his boat would be caught in a current and smashed
against a rocky shore. Perhaps the most vexatious god was he who
ruled the Floating Islands. These islands were beautiful with trees and
flowers, metal shone and crystals sparkled on their ledges, sweet fruits
grew in plenty, and song-birds flitted over them. In wonder and delight
the hunter would speed toward them in his canoe, but as he neared their
turfy banks the jealous manitou, who kept these fairy lands for his own
pleasure, would throw down a fog and shut them out of sight. Never
could the hunter set foot on them, no matter