Long, long ago the Ojibwa lived freely in the continent
that is now North America. The people worked hard,
they hunted and fished, made their wigwams and canoes
and lived in harmony with nature.
Life was good, the Summers were long and the rivers were clean
and fresh and full of fish. The earth was rich and good,
and the people had all they needed.
At nightime, when all their work was done,
the people wpuld sit at the entrance to their homes,
or round the camp fires and rest.
They would often sit and listen to the sounds of the forests
or watch the sky. They loved to see the beautiful silver
Moon as she rose in the sky, and all the stars flickering
in the darkness.
One evening the people were relaxing as usual listening to the
noises of the night and the tiny voices of faery folk,
when one of the braves saw someting strange. Standing up, the others
looked to where he pointed and there in the tallest tree
in the forest, they could see a bright shining light.
A star seemed to be caught in the topmost branches of the tree!
For several days it stayed there and the people were puzzled.
The cheifs held a pow wow and tried to understand what was
happening. On the fourth night, the brave who had first seen
the light had a strange dream.
As he lay sleeping, a silver maiden came to him and when she spoke,
her voice was like a rippling stream.
"I am the Star Maiden" she said
"I am tired of wandering across the sky,
Your world calls to me.
My home is in the star, we have travelled many miles together
and I have seen many beautiful lands,
but none as fair as this.
If you let me live among you, the star shall return to the
heavens and your wisest people can tell me what
form I may take to live on your land"
When the council of elders heard this they were pleased
and honoured. They instructed the brave to tell the
Star MAaden that she may live wherever she chose.
And so the next night, she again came into the braves dream
and he gave her the message.
and so she searched for her new home.
She slipped into the center of a prairie rose
growing on the hillside. "This shall be ny home
she said" But the star did not move,
it stayed perched on top of the tree.
I cannot live here the Star Maiden said,
I am too far from the people and I cannot see them
or hear their laughter.
So she looked for a new home, and soon she decided to make
her home in a small blue praire flower.
But she soon found something was wrong.
Every day the earth shook and rumbled as the great buffalow herds
trampled the ground.
"Oh dear, she cried I cannot live here"
So once again she flew over the valley and back to the
trapped star. The star maiden drifted over the lake.
Her reflection floated on the dark waters there.
Then the people heard her call to the other stars in the sky.
"Sisters," she cried, "stop your wandering and find rest
with me here on earth. These quiet waters shall be our home."
Then the sky shook and the lake came alive with stars.
Then the great star lifted itself off of the tree, and floated
off into the sky.
The elders smiled, "let us go and rest" they said, "the Star Maiden
is home at last."
In the morning, it seemed that hundreds of stars were floating
in the lake! The braves got out their canoes to see,
But they were not stars at all, there were hundreds of
starflowers floating on the lake.
The star maiden and her sisters had found their place.
They had dropped from the sky to live in the lake.
Water LIllies!
they are the stars that fell from the sky all those years ago.
If you sit quietly on the shores of a lake where water
lillies grow you may be lucky enough to hear the
star maiden and her sisters singing, for the Ojibwa say
they live there still.
And their song is like the rippling of the waters
and the singing of the birds.