O-na-wut-a-qut-o

Family: Odjibwas · Role: only son · First appears: Onaiazo, the Sky-Walker

In “Onaiazo, the Sky-Walker,” O-na-wut-a-qut-o is the only son of an aged Odjibwa and his wife, who live on the Shores of Lake Huron. One day he blackens his face and goes out to fast; that night he dreams that the female guide (Onaiazo legend) leads him through the clouds. Though her brother objects that the Greatest of the Spirits forbade her to take him from below, he gives O-na-wut-a-qut-o a bow and arrows and a pipe of red stone as consent to their marriage. They are considered husband and wife from then on.

After some time, the female guide (Onaiazo legend) agrees to conduct him home. He wakes near his father’s lodge, surrounded by his parents and relatives, and his mother tells him he has been absent for a year. He later marries a beautiful young woman of his own tribe, who dies within four days, and then marries again. One night he leaves the lodge and never returns; the tradition says his Sun-wife recalled him to the region of the clouds.