Believe it or not, Ojibwe also have a story about Paul Bunyan. He came to the area known as Red Lake and tried his de-forestation BS, but Nanaboozhoo - The Greatest Ojibwe who ever lived - obviously wasn’t having none of that. They got into a fight that lasted 3 days, and finally our hero picked up a giant walleye and slapped the outlander silly with it. Paul got knocked on his ass in a mud puddle, so hard it left an imprint of his buttcheeks there in the wet ground…thats why the lake is shaped the way it is and why we were able to keep our forest. You’ll never hear this story in a book, but that’s basically how I heard it from my father when I was young - after coming home from kindergarten in bemidj (pauls favorite town, mwahaha!) and talking about him. That’s the story behind the Paul/Babe & Nanaboozhoo statues in that town. This used to be a sign at the rez line, I remember the chimooks didn’t like it and kept cutting it down. But the story lives on, and now you know . . . #native #nativeamerican #indigenous #nativepride #nature #art #nativeamericans #natives #love #firstnations #nativeart #nativeculture #nativebeauty #nativeamericanart #nativeamericanpride #culture #indigenouspeople #indigenousart #photography #aboriginal #navajo #handmade #indigenouspride #americanindian #nativeamericanculture #nativemade #indigenouswomen #nativeamerica #fashion #nativeamericanhistorymonth

  • IninewCrowEnglish
    84•1 day ago

    I’m Ojibway / Cree in Ontario just on the other side of the Great Lakes from all this. And the language and story telling is very familiar. I remember hearing this story from other Native groups Minnesota before and they always loved it because it completely turns the whole Paul Bunyan legend on its head. The language is related to mine because the place name ‘Bemidji’ means ‘a lake with crossing waters’ or something like that … it’s implying that its a location where areas of water can be crossed. It’s familiar to me to because in my language Bemichi means portaging across or to waterways.

    And when it comes to Nanaboozhoo - The Greatest Ojibwe who ever lived … we call him Nanabush in our part of the country. He’s a great character because he is everything … powerful, strong, brilliant, intelligent while also feeble, humble, dumb and fallible.

    Definitely a great Ojibwe … or Oochiboo as we call ourselves … for slapping Bunyan silly with a fish!