Dear Dad and Constant Readers,
Woofy and I are spending quality time at the Bay Mills resort and casino in Brimley Michigan. They have excellent room service here, I can recommend the Reuben sandwich especially. Love that sweet kraut!
The Native Americans here on the Bay Mills Reservation have been especially hospitable toward me. I owe them a lot! Yesterday I was sitting down at their camp fire and they were telling stories. Here is a particularly good one that was told to me by a storyteller named Kent Robin.
It took place back in the time of his Grandfather's Grandfather. (I guess that just means a really long time ago).
Back then the Ottawa and the Chippewa Indians were not the same tribe like they are now. There was an Ottawa warrior who was a member of the Eagle Clan. The Eagle clan was a clan of shape shifters and they were called the Eagle clan because they believed that one of their ancestors was a Bird man. The Bird men were a tribe of people who were very long lived and they too were shape shifters. When this Bird man mated with an Ottawa woman all of his offspring could not only change into an animal but could change back at will and they all lived much longer than most human beings.
This man of the Eagle Clan had gone a long time 50 winters, and had not found a mate. He decided to go on a trip to see if he could find his mate. So he travelled a long time toward the North and eventually he came to a great lake (Lake Superior) He built a canoe out of a fallen log and began to paddle along the lake. Every time he saw people he would stop and see if his mate was among them. If he didn't find a mate he would only stay with the people for a short time and then go on his way. Winter was coming and he knew he had to find shelter. He stopped at this one place where there were many rocks and cliffs by the side of the Lake. He walked a ways inland and found a cave in which to spend the winter. He soon realized that a family of wolves lived in this cave. So the man changed into his wolf form and joined the pack. Soon he realized that one of the she-wolves was his mate. He challenged the leader and being that he was bigger and stronger and smarter than the other wolves he was soon their leader. That winter his mate had a litter of three fine pups, two males and a female. By spring they had grown enough to go out and learn to hunt.
In the fall when the pups were almost a year old and nearly had their full growth, their father took them out to a field past their den and changed into a human in front of them. They were amazed since none of them had ever seen a human being before. He changed back and communicated to them in the Wolf way that he was a member of the Eagle Clan and so were they, that they too could change into human beings. So each of them tried. The female was the first to succeed. She changed into a young woman with long black hair and dark flashing eyes. The boys then changed as well not to be outdone.
For many weeks after this the father took his three offspring out to the field and they changed into humans. He taught them to talk and walk and act like a human. One time when they were there they ran into a hunting part of Chippewa men. One of the men fell in love with the daughter at once and wanted her for wife. The father allowed her to marry and sent the two boys back to their wolf mother. He went for a time to live with his daughter and her new husband, but soon he became unhappy and missed his wolf-mate. So he went back to her.
The daughter never again changed back to a wolf, but her children were all Eagle Clan children and each one could change their shape to that of a wolf upon reaching their time of puberty. Eventually, as these Eagle Clan children married among the Chippewas the Eagle Clan offspring became less and less prevalent until finally they had become almost forgotten. Only one Eagle Clan child is born out of every generation now and sometimes generations are skipped entirely. The last one that was born was back in the turn of the 1900's and he is believed to be still alive.
If so he would be over 100 years old.
Good story huh Dad? I wonder if such things really exists? The Native Americans say they don't lie and their stories are all true.
Well, at least they believe it to be true, which is not the same thing as a lie.
For those of you interested in the food, it was very good at the Bay Mills restaurant as well. If your interested in seeing the whole reviews please contact my father whose digits as always are on the right of the post.
I've also had some very good pasties up here, more on that later,
Tessa Gates
and Woofy!
(Disclaimer-This is not a true Native American Legend, I made this up as part of the story of Tess and Woofy. I admire and wish to respect all Native American Tribes and especially the local Ottawa and Ojibwa tribes. I do not wish to offend anyone with my writing. I am open to further discussion on this or any other topic that my writing evokes. Thank you, Cindy Koch-Krol)
