Ojeeg

Also known as: Fisher / Ojeeg Annung / the Fisher · Role: hunter · First appears: Ojeeg Annung; or, the Summer-Maker · Part 1

On the southern shores of Lake Superior, Ojeeg lived with the wife of Ojeeg and their thirteen-year-old son. When the boy asked for perpetual summer, a squirrel told him that Ojeeg would say the task was difficult but that he would try for his son’s sake. Ojeeg held a feast for the Otter, the Beaver, the Lynx (Ojeeg Annung legend), the Badger (Ojeeg Annung legend) and the Wolverine, and they arranged to set out on a journey in three days. When the time came, he took leave of his wife and son, foreseeing it would be for the last time.

The great Manito told Ojeeg he would achieve his object, though it might cost his life, and directed the company on their way. In the morning, Ojeeg shared meat with the shivering Otter; later, after the Wolverine leapt through an opening in the sky, Ojeeg followed him. Thinking of his son, he cut open the containers and released birds and warm air through the opening, bringing them north. At the celestial plain, he said, “I have fulfilled my promise to my son,” and that he would die satisfied. Found dead the next morning, he remained in the heavens with an arrow in his tail.