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The Great Flood
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Ojibway Creation Story
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Central to many stories that the Ojibway people tell about creation is Nanabozho. Nanabozho was half man, half spirit. He looked like a man and lived like other people. But he was more powerful than any man. He could command the wind and the rain, he sometimes took the form of different animals, and he called the animals his brothers. One of the most powerful was the Grizzly Bear, the keeper of the knowledge of the Ojibway people. Nanabozho also interceded between humans and the manitos, or spirits.
In one story, Nanabozho was hunting in winter with a young wolf, his nephew. Nanabozho warned the wolf never to walk across a frozen lake, because the water spirits below the ice were Nanabozho’s enemies. But the wolf stepped out onto the ice anyway. In the middle of the lake the ice cracked – and the wolf fell through and was drowned. Nanabozho vowed revenge, and succeeded in killing the spirits who had drowned the wolf.
The remaining underwater spirits, in response, caused a great flood to try and drown Nanabozho. Nanabozho climbed the hightest mountain; but the water rose to the top. Then he climbed a tall pine tree; but the water rose still higher. He commanded the tree to stretch taller. Finally, when the tree could grow no higher, and the water reached Nanabozho’s neck. The water stopped rising. Nanabozho decided to create a new earth, and he asked the animals to die down and fetch him a piece of the old earth, from which to make it. The muskrat returned with a paw full of dirt. Nanabozho took this earth in his hand and expanded it to make a new world, on which he put trees, lakes, mountains, and valleys.
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Norval Morisseau, Ojibway
Norval Morisseau’s painting depicts the re-creation of the Ojibway people after the great flood. Seated in the canoe with other animals of the land and air are Bear, keeper of knowledge, and a Native man, representing the Ojibway people. Below (right) is a “merman,” who is emerging from the ocean to become the Ojibway people once again.
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Click on the image at left to hear and watch another version of the Ojibway Flood Story in the online version of the MPMRC's Algonquian Langages interactive exhibit.
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