Legend Of The Sleeping Bear

Long, long ago, on the other shore of this great lake, there lived a mother bear. One spring the mother bear gave birth to two cubs. When they were old enough, she showed them where to drink from the creek, how to use their claws to dig in the rotten trees for ants, how to follow the honeybees back to their hives. So the cubs grew strong in the woods that spring.

But that summer was so hot. The sun seemed closer to the earth, no clouds were in the sky, there was no rain. The woods grew dry.

One morning the mother bear said, "Our creek has dried up. We must follow the dry creek bed to the great lake and drink from there."

That night, as often happens in this area, a powerful storm stuck, with thunder and lightning from the sky. And when the lightning hit the dry woods, a terrible fire started. As the wind pushed the fire,

"Run, children, run! Down the dry creek bed to the great lake! RUN!"

The fire and wind chased the family down the dry creek bed. But once they were in the great lake, they felt safe. Then one of the cubs looked back at the shore.

"Mother, where are we going to live? Our whole home is on fire!"

"It's alright, my children. I have heard of a land, much like this, on the other shore of this great lake. We will swim to it."

So they turned their backs on the fire, and started swimming. When the sun came up the next morning, they were swimming straight toward it. The other cub looked around and cried,

"Mother! I can't see any land. Not our old home, not our new home. I only see water. How do you know which way to swim?"

"My children, we swim toward the rising sun. And last night I used the stars to guide me. But even before that storm stopped, I knew which way to swim. The wind comes across the water, pushing us toward our new home."

So they swam all that day and all that night. The next morning, one cub said,

"Mother, do you see our new home yet?"

"Not yet, my children. We must keep swimming."

"But we're so tired, Mother. "

"I know you are. Just try to keep up."

But the cubs fell behind. And that night, when another terrible storm blew up, and the waves stood tall,

"Children? Children? Where are you? Children? Children??"

The mother bear tried to stay where she was, as the waves batted her around. When the sun rose the next morning, she searched all around.

"Children? Children? Where are you? Children? Children??
They must be ahead of me. They are lighter than I am and the storm must have pushed them ahead of me. As I swim to our new home, I will find them."

So the mother bear starting swimming again toward the rising sun. She swam all that day and all that night. Finally, in the morning, she could see the shore up ahead.

"I will find them when I get to the shore. They will be there waiting for me, or I will find their paw prints and track them down."

But when she dragged her sopping body from the lake, her cubs were not there, and there were no paw prints in the sand.

"They must have landed somewhere else. I will find them."

She searched up and down that shore, but the only paw prints she found were her own.

"Then they must be behind me. They know the way. I will lay down here and wait for them."

So she lay down on the edge of the shore, always watching the great lake, only sleeping when it was too dark to see. But her cubs did not come.

Finally one day, the Great Spirit Manido, who is wise and created all things, took pity on her. He brought her up to the spirit world where she was reunited with her cubs.

"Mother! Mother! We tried to follow you! We did! But the waves were too tall, they pushed us under the water!"

"My children, I know you did your best. And now it is I who have followed you to our new home. Everything is alright now."

The Great Spirit Manido was so moved by the love and faithfulness that he saw that he raised the bodies of the cubs from the deep water and made them into islands, North Manido and South Manido Islands. To honor the mother, he placed pile after pile of sand on the place where she had waited, so that forever all people and animals would know the greatness of Sleeping Bear.