“Man’s Dependence on Animals” (Anishinaabe Ojibway)

This starts as a flood myth, which is then shown as the birth of man and man’s reliance on animals. The spirit-woman is called from the sky because she contains man within her and she lives on the back of the turtle. Then, a weasel goes and grabs soil from the bottom of the water which the spirit-woman spreads around her to create all the land. The animals are very helpful for man, who would have died numerous times over without the animals, but man begins to take advantage of the animals. The animals finally get tired of this, and call together a meeting where they talk it out. But many of the animals are angry and want to kill man or make him suffer. Dog, however, feels very loyal and goes to warn man, but wolf sees him sneak off and drags him back after he’s told man. The animals then want to kill all dogs, but instead he’s punished by always being subservient to man. The other animals all disband, speaking different languages from there on.