Ojibwa

Fisher used to live somewhere in this world, but nobody knows where. This was in the days when there was no summer at all. It was always snow and cold and ice all the time. People knew that there was a Summer Land where the Summer Birds lived, but they were not sure where it was.

Now it was always winter because in the days of the grandfathers a man had captured all the Summer Birds and had taken them away with him. Thus it was always cold. The people talked about it in their tepees when North Wind rattled the flaps and shouted to them.

At last Fisher said he would find those Summer Birds so that summer would come again. Fisher did not know where the Summer Land was, but he traveled for a long, long while until he came to it in the Sky Land. Then he reached the tepee where the man lived. All the Summer Birds were there, all tied together.

Now Fresh-water Herring lived there also with this man. Fisher at once put some pitch in Herring’s mouth, so that he could not cry out. Then he took the birds up, and tried to break the cords which bound them together; but he could not do it. Fisher then used his teeth, and the cords gave way, and behold! the Summer Birds flew about everywhere.

Then Herring got the pitch out of his mouth. He began to shout, “Fisher breaks the bundle! Fisher breaks the bundle! The Summer Birds!” Several times he called out until the man came rushing in, but by that time Fisher and the Summer Birds were a long way off. The Summer Birds dropped right down to the earth through a hole in the Sky Land, but the man closed the hole before they all got through. That is why it is not summer all the time. If all the Summer Birds had come to earth, it would always be summer.

Fisher did not have time to jump back to earth, so he rushed up among the stars. The man followed close after him, trying to shoot him with his bow and arrows. But Fisher got safely into Star Land. Only the man shot him once and hit him in the tail. That is why Fisher’s tail is broken. You can see it today—so the Indians say.