Long ago, the Anishinabe people would have their children fast. They would take them out in the woods when they very young before they had reached puberty. A woman whose parents did not speak English and was very old told this story to me. This story came from way back in time.
One father of a young man bragged that his boy could fast more than anyone. He put him in a pine tree where he had built a nest for him. He tied his wrists to the branches of the tree with basswood twine.
With charcoal, he blackened his face. He told his son to follow and watch the sun all day long. The young boy moved his body, twisting it, and he moved his head towards the rays of the hot sun.
His father came to visit him after four days, then eight, twelve, and so forth and so on.
The longest people had fasted was thirty some days, although some say they had fasted forty days.
After thirty days the father returned to the village, bragging that “his” boy would fast longer and be better than anyone. When it was nearly forty days, he asked his boy, “Are you hot, are you suffering?”
“Ah, pitchi” (really) answered his boy.
The next day he went back and again asked his boy if he was still burning up from the sun and was still very hot. “Ah pitchi, really, very much,” was all he could barely say.
Finally, after forty days, the boy’s father again bragged to his whole village that his son would be the most powerful of anyone. The people knew that his boy was suffering terribly.
The father went out for two days, after being asked how he was, the boy could only say, “Oh Oh Oh pitchi.” He could barely say, “really.”
Finally, on the last day, his father went out to bring his boy into the village. He looked up in the pine nest and saw no one there. The basswood twine was empty with no wrists in it. He saw no tracks.
Where could his boy be?
People from the village came out and looked all over for the young boy. They could not find him. Everybody talked about how mean his father had been to him. This was the fasting time of spring.
All through the winter, the people thought about the mistakes the boy’s father had made. Then late winter, people started having dreams of this young boy.
Towards spring, the young boy spoke to the people through their dreams, and he promised he would return.
Then, at about the same time the young boy who had been fasting during the previous year, the people all saw a bird they had never seen before. Speaking to the people through their dreams, the boy told the people to look at the bird’s chest. It was covered with a reddish-orange color.
He told the people, “Don’t ever be so mean to your children as my father was to me. The sun burned my chest, and the Great Spirit came and got me and turned me into a bird.”
Today, he is one of the first birds that appears with “See Gwen” the beautiful lady of spring.
When asked by his father if he was suffering he wasn’t able to say “Ah pitchi” (really) but could only answer “Oh Oh Oh pitchi. The creator heard that sad call and named him, “Oh pitchi.”
Today he is called the robin. That is all. Migwitch.
In the middle of the 1970s Billy Blackwell, a native Ojibwa from Grand Portage, created a book of native stories with Jim Korf, the famous artist from Hovland, who did the pictures for the book. Billy has agreed to share some of these stories with our readers.
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