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On a cold yet beautiful Friday evening on Jan. 10, attendees gathered at the Bois Forte Heritage Center with Ojibwe storyteller Char Lewis. After an initial meet and greet with treats in the lobby, everyone moved into the center of the museum space under the lighted star ceiling in a circle for story time.
Lewis shared the story of how the Mukwa (Bear in Anishinabemowin), used to have a long tail and how he lost it. Mukwa was being mean to Anishinabeg (the People) so Nanaboozhoo, a main Ojibwe folk hero and demigod, grabbed him by the tail and threw Mukwa into the sky and his tail fell off. Thus, Mukwa has a short tail ever since.
Morgan Olson, Bois Forte Tribal Archivist, has displayed other stories as part of a series called “Ojibwe Winter Stories.”
The three on display right now are: “How the Ojibwe Got Maple Sugar,” “The Magic Pots” and “Nanaboozhoo Made a House for Turtle.”
To view these, the museum is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and is located at 1500 Bois Forte Road, Tower just down the road from Fortune Bay Resort Casino.
