In the beginning, when spirit beings still lived among people, Manabozho was the protector of the human race. He was the son of an earthly woman and the Great Spirit, Manitou. Manabozho taught the people how to hunt and catch fish, how to plant crops, and how to make sugar from the sap of the maple tree. He shared with them the secret of fire so they could prepare hot meals and warm themselves on cold nights.
Manabozho lived in a lodge with his young cousin, whom he treated as a son. One day Manabozho returned home from a long journey to find his beloved cousin missing. He called out the little boy’s name but received no answer. So Manabozho went outside to look for the boy There he discovered the trail of his enemy, the Great Serpent, and realized that the giant snake had kidnapped the boy Manabozho grabbed his bow and arrow and followed the trail. It led him across several high mountains and steep valleys, over a fast- moving river, and through a dark forest. At last it brought him to the edge of a deep, gloomy lake.
At the bottom of the lake dwelled the Great Serpent with his many companions and servants. All were terrible monsters with evil sprits and snakelike forms. They obeyed the Great Serpent without hesitation. Manabozho peered into the water, and in the middle of all the vile creatures he spied the Great Serpent The serpent’s immense head was blood-red in color with fierce eyes of blazing fire Hard, glistening scales of every shade covered his body To Manabozho’s horror he saw that the serpent’s massive form was coiled around the lifeless body of the precious young boy.
In sadness and anger, Manabozho vowed revenge. He decided to make the lake so hot that the Great Serpent and his ruthless companions could not remain. They would be forced to find shelter in the cool shade of the trees growing on the lake bank. There Manabozho would dispense his own justice.
Manabozho asked the clouds to vanish from the sky the winds to cease their cooling breeze and the sun to shine unremittingly on the lake. Manabozho then picked up his bow and arrow and found the coolest, shadiest patch of forest, knowing that this was where the Great Serpent would come. Manabozho then transformed himself into a broken stump so the evil spirits would not detect his presence.
Soon the winds stopped blowing, the clouds disappeared, and the sun beat down relentlessly on the lake. The water became warm, and then hot. When it began to steam and hiss the vile creatures poked their heads above the surface and scanned the shore. Sensing a trap, they searched for signs of Manabozho and listened for his footsteps. But they found no trace of him.
The heat became too much for the Great Serpent to tolerate. Slowly he emerged from the lake’s depths. His blood-red head shimmered a deep crimson, and the fire in his eyes burned white-hot. Had he been capable of spitting fire, flames surely would have leapt from his mouth. As he slithered onto the banks of the lake, his cronies trailed after him, filling the shore with their foul-smelling hulks. When the creatures spied the broken trunk, they immediately suspected that it was Manabozho. So one of them wrapped its body around the stump and tried to uproot it. But Manabozho held on fast. After a few minutes the creatures gave up and slunk away to find shady places to rest.
The Great Serpent slipped into the forest and looped his gargantuan body around several majestic trees. Soon he and his companions fell fast asleep, leaving one particularly savage fiend on the lookout for Manabozho.
When the guard was looking the other way Manabozho silently picked up his bow and arrow and carefully took aim. Then he shot the Great Serpent in the heart. The serpent awoke with an ear-splitting shriek.
His face contorted in pain, the Great Serpent dragged his wounded body back into the lake, where his worried companions joined him.
When the serpent realized that he had been mortally wounded, he and his cohorts vented their rage on Manabozho. They forced the lake to expand and rise from its depth. In giant waves, the water cascaded over the banks and poured onto the forest floor.
Writhing in agony the Great Serpent rode the crest of the first mighty wave. The color had drained from his head and scales, but his eyes still burned like fiery coals. Alongside the serpent raced his loyal followers, hissing loudly vowing vengeance.
Retreating from the onslaught, Manabozho thought of the men, women, and children who lived in the countryside. He also thought of the spirit beings, like Beaver, Otter, and Muskrat, who lived among the humans. Quickly Manabozho raced to their villages and warned everyone to flee to the mountains. As the people and spirit beings fled, water filled the valleys and swallowed the highest hills. Now it clawed at the sides of the mountains, and Manabozho urged everyone to climb higher.
The water rose higher still. Soon it gobbled up every mountain except for the highest one, where Manabozho stood surrounded by desperate people and spirit beings. Manabozho hastily gathered up trees and lashed them together to form an enormous raft. Just as the floodwaters licked the mountaintop, Manabozho guided the last of the people and spirit beings onto the raft.
For a week, Manabozho and his charges floated alone on the water. The people begged him to disperse the water and renew the Earth. But to repair the world, Manabozho first needed a few grains of earth from beneath the floodwaters.
Beaver volunteered to dive to the bottom of the floodwaters and retrieve some earth. Although she was warned of the danger, she dove into the deluge. As the minutes and then hours passed with no sign of Beaver, the anxious people realized that she could not have survived her mission. Her body eventually floated to the surface, and the people opened her paws. There was no earth inside them.
Next Otter offered to try. He plunged into the murky waters and was gone longer than Beaver. At first when his body resurfaced, the people thought he had survived. But like Beaver, Otter had perished, and there was no earth in his paws.
The people were becoming desperate. Who could save them? Finally Muskrat stepped forward. He took a deep breath before diving into the water and disappeared for an even longer period than Otter. The people thought he would never return.
Suddenly someone spotted a speck in the water. Slowly it moved closer to the raft. It was Muskrat, so tired he could barely swim. The people pulled him aboard, where he gave one final gasp and died from exhaustion. Inside his paw Muskrat grasped a few clumps of earth.
Manabozho took the precious grains and laid them out in the sun. When they were dry, he pulverized them into tiny bits of dust and blew the dust over the water.
Instantly the floodwaters began to subside, and soon the mountains appeared and then the hills and the valleys. The newly emerged land showed no trace of the flood except for a thick layer of mud, which was the dust that Manabozho had blown over the water.
And the evil spirits? Although their master, the Great Serpent, had died from his wound, his followers returned to the bottom of the lake. They were so frightened of Manabozho they never dared to leave their home again.
Chippeway-Ojibwa
Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Province of Ontario
Retold in the book Weather Legends – Native American Lore and the Science of Weather by Carole Garbuny Vogel