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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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