Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

"O-jeeg as the Fisher", by John Rae (1921)

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The next story told by Iagoo was that of the Boy Who Snared the Sun. Iagoo starts out by telling the story of the Dormouse, a creature that was bigger than all others, and he also tells about a younger world when there were a lot more animals around. At this time, there were only two people left on Earth: a boy and his sister. The boy was disabled because of dwarfism, and one day his sister made him a bow and some arrows to help him take care of himself. He takes to it well, killing enough birds for his sister to make him a coat from. The boy soon developed the spirit to travel the world, which he did but not before the Sun itself played a trick on him. The Sun burnt his bird coat as it was setting beyond the horizon, so the boy thought of a way to get back at the sun: make an aparatus to stop the sun where it was. After realizing the sun wasn't rising the rest of the animals of nature became worried and called upon the Dormouse to free the sun from its bindings. The Dormouse agrees, but is burnt down to little more than a common mouse after being under the sun's rays while freeing it.

Following this tale, Iagoo moves on to tell of How the Summer Came for Morning Glory, who has gotten tire of winter. The story is specifically about a magic man (who could transform into a Fisher (fox)) named O-jeeg who found a way to bring summer. O-jeeg was a hunter, who heard from his elders about a place called Summer, where there wasn't constantly snow and ice like where he lived. O-jeeg's son gets information from a talking squirrel on how to bring Summer through the sky to their lands, and tells O-jeeg about it. O-jeeg and his animal friends set out to find a mountain that reaches beyond the clouds to bring Summer through, and they partake the help of a Manito who shows them to the mountain after allowing the group to stay at his lodge. All of O-jeeg's friends fail in making a dent in the sky until the wolverine tries, and O-jeeg follows: they see a land with warmth, greenery, and light. They had found Summer, and as they both tried to release all of the splendor of Spring, Autumn and Summer while getting back to their world, O-jeeg did not make it back. The skydwellers shot O-jeeg through the tail while he was in the form of a fisher, and he dies soon after: his constellation lines makes up the very one Morning Glory asked about in the first place.