John Whitefeather, of the Couderay Ojibwe, who adopted the writer into their tribe, related their origin myth. Briefly it is as follows: There has always been a controversy among the whites as to whether such an Indian as Hiawatha ever lived. Hiawatha is the name that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gave to their cultural hero, Winabojo. Hiawatha or Winabojo was never seen by man, although sometimes both names have been used for proper names among the Ojibwe. Their great spirit or ruler of the universe was named Dzhe Manido.

According to Whitefeather, Winabojo was the one who caused the deluge that covered the world and was responsible for building it again. Winabojo was sitting at the mouth of a big river and noticed a stick bobbing up and down near the middle of the stream. He thought it was curious that it was not carried on down stream to the big lake and further thought that it would be fun to sit on the stick. So he swam out and sat on it. Dzhe Manido had told him two phrases, one of which he might sing to himself, which is translated “Lake must close in” and the other was “Lake should spread out”, and he must not say that. Winabojo became curious to see what would happen if he repeated the second of these phrases. He said it. Immediately the stick sank and he fell under. He swam back to the top but could discover no land. Other animals were swimming around, so he requested muskrat to dive down and get him some mud from the bottom of the lake. Muskrat dived down but it was too far and he drowned. The martin tried it and drowned. The otter tried it and drowned. Then beaver tried it and obtained some mud, but died as he reached the surface. Winabojo took the mud that remained between the claws of beaver and rolled it into a little ball. Winabojo made this ball grow as he rolled it around in his hands, while the animals swam around him. Finally the ball grew large enough for the fox to jump upon it and run around. Then it grew larger until all the animals could get upon it.

So Winabojo and the animals were the first inhabitants and Winabojo put the plants upon the world. Winabojo lived in a little valley with his grandmother, Nokomis. Against her wishes, he went on a voyage of exploration, leaving his valley to climb a hill. In the next valley he saw a lot of people all dancing and he wanted to dance with them. So he went down and danced all day, though none of them spoke to him or said a word to each other. When the wind died down at sunset, he discovered them to be only cattails, so he started back home. On his way he was approached by Cumpa. No one knows who sent Cumpa there, but we think that it was Dzhe Manido. Nokomis had told him that there were inhabitants somewhere on the earth. Winabojo sat down with Cumpa and they talked over the matter of how to regulate the world. In their conference they developed the medicine lodge idea and the Ojibwe count Winabojo as its founder. The painted post that they erect in their medicine lodge represents Winabojo. It is carved to resemble a human form, but not too closely, as they wish it to be understood that Winabojo is a god and not a human being.

Winabojo started during the month of July to hunt for the inhabitants of the earth and finally found them in the latter part of December or early January. Then he stayed with them for several months, teaching them the secrets of the medicine lodge. He told them how they must gather roots and what songs they must sing. A specimen song and its meaning is here given.

Nin ba ba odjiˈbîke

I go to gather roots;

oˈoˈweˈdasaˈssema

here is tobacco;

mînode ni nowi nîmîcîn

Give me direct guidance,