For this week I chose to read The Origin of Winnebago from the Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. “Winnebago” is a name that’s given to a group of people by another group of people.
Reading Notes
- Manabush was walking along and became hungry, and saw a bunch of waterfowl in a lake.
- He tucked away his medicine bag that he had, then took a roll of bark and put it on his back before walking back by the lake.
- Catching the attention of the birds, they asked him where he was going; Manabush said he was going to have a dance, and invited the birds to come with him.
- He led the birds away from the lake, then arranged the birds around him and told them to close their eyes and sing and dance, proclaiming that the first one to open his eyes would always have red eyes.
- He grabbed the birds by the neck one by one, until a small duck opened his eyes and saw what was happening.
- The duck screamed a warning to all the other birds, and they ran away to the lake.
- Manabush grabbed the small duck, and warned that he wouldn’t kill the bird, but it would always have red eyes and be the laughing stock of the other birds, and pushed it into the lake, taking its tail off.
- Manabush took the birds he’d killed and buried them with a fire on top to cook them, with only the feet and heads exposed.
- Because Manabush was tired, he told his thigh to keep watch and fell asleep.
- After a while, Indians come along and steal the birds to eat, then rebury just the heads and feet to make everything look like before.
- Manabush eventually woke up, and discovered that his birds were gone.
- When he asked his thigh why it didn’t wake him, his thigh said it also fell asleep because it was tired, but pointed out the Indians moving away in their canoes.
- The Manabush called the thieves winnebagos, and so the Menomini have always called any thieving neighbors winnebagos.
Members of the Ho-Chunk people, called the Winnebago by some. (Source)
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