XIV. HOW THE COPPER MOUNTAIN CAME TO FALL
(Portage Indians, 1894)
here is a noble priest who has long been a missionary among the Portage Indians, near the Lake of the Woods. He has won their respect, given them a written language, and taught them many of the white man’s secrets; in return they have told him many of their stories and their secrets. They have told him why they no longer own copper mines, but must get copper from the Kaidahs, a stronger tribe.
This is the story:
Many moons ago the Indians living about Hudson Bay all went to a certain place in the west for their copper.
A great mountain of copper stood there, and it was in the middle of the water. The Portage Indians tell that each tribe wanted the mountain; at last, when many tribes were working together to get out the [[267]]copper, it was agreed to let one tribe own it; but which tribe? No one could tell.
It was left for the copper mountain itself to decide who should be its master. All the tribes began to shout for it to come to them. The mountain did not move for a long time.
At last it trembled; then the Kaidah Indians, who have big heads and loud voices, shouted louder than any other tribe. The top of the mountain fell toward the Kaidahs.
“And that is why we go and trade with them for the copper with which to make the rings we give our women and children,” say the Portage or Carrier Indians of Manitoba. [[268]]