lighteagle

The First Snowshoes


Long ago in our village, there was a beautiful young woman named Laughing Eye. She was the daughter of the wise, respected man. There were two young men who loved her and they both wanted to marry her. Her father didn’t know at first how he would decide which young man he would present his daughter to. Finally, after much thought, he told the village, “I will send a message to the village far to the north, and when the message is prepared, both young men will start out at the same time. The one delivers the message and returns first will win her affection.”

When Laughing Eyes heard this, she was very worried because the young man she loved, Ozawaa, wasn’t as strong as the other young man. That night she had a dream. In her dram it was winter and there was deep snow on the ground. She saw birds of every kind walking around in the snow. Some of the birds were sinking deeply into the snow and had great difficulty walking. Others, like the duck with its webbed feet, could walk right on top of the snow. When she woke the next morning, she thought about what her dream was telling her.

The next day she went out in the woods and cut some small trees and brought them back. One of the tree was ironwood tree. She bent the ironwood into the shape of the snowshoe that we see today. She took the other branches and wove them in and out between the outer edges. When she was done, she went to see Ozawaa and gave these shoes to him. And said, “I want you to try these when you come to deep snow on your journey. You won’t have difficulty walking,” Ozawaa wasn’t too excited about these new shoes. But since they were a gift, he accepted them and promised to try them out in the deep snow.

When the day of the journey came, Ozawaa put the snowshoes on his back and started out. He didn’t use them at first, but soon he came to an area where the snow was very deep. Ozawaa took the snowshoes from his back and put them on. He started out over the snow and found he could walk right on top of it. He was able to move almost as fast as he could in the spring with these new shoes. As a result, he arrived at the northern village in only two days, rather than the four or five days which it often took to gravel this distance in the winter. The other young man was far behind, still sinking into the snow with every step.

Ozawaa delivered the message to the village and the people were excited about the new shoes he was wearing. The women looked at them carefully and went home to make these shoes for everyone. When Ozawaa’s rival arrived at the village the people told him that Ozawaa had already been there three days before and he was wings on his feet. Ozawaa was return to the village and he was able to marry Laughing Eyes. All the people in the village joined in celebrating at the wedding and feast.

This is the story of the first snowshoes. But it also shows us how being kind to the persons you love and doing kind things for them is the good thing brings joy to both people and to others. In this case, it brought the snowshoes to the Anishinabe.

Deafness

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Julie°

Oh! That was a beautiful story. I've always liked indian legends.