Anung Crosses
the First Waters

The next morning the city prepared Anung’s canoe for him. The craftsmen of this Owasco city had learned the best way to manage the slowest burn to hollow out a great tree trunk to make the largest canoe with sides so light and strong the canoe could handle the roughest weather.

Each of the tribes gathered at the great city smoked or dried their meats and fish and they prepared their best for Anung. Along with breads and squash and corn they collected enough food for Anung to last a long journey to the island of the first sun. The lightest and strongest baskets using the best methods and materials of the gathered people were woven to store the food.

The best bladders of hides were used to store water, for skins were much lighter than even the finest clay pots.

They loaded Anung’s canoe with as much food and water as the canoe would hold.

The canoe was narrow, to cut through the waves cleanly. An outrigger was mounted on its side to keep it stable. They studied the construction of the best snowshoes and the most flexible and durable lacrosse sticks to build the framework for the canoe’s sail, then sewed a sail of the finest buckskin that was scrapped many times to make it the lightest buckskin they had ever made.

A great red sun was painted on the sail, but there was still room for all of the symbols of the gathered tribes. Each took their turn and decorated the sail with signs and images so every tribe would be known to the greatest chief when Anung found him across the great salt lake that stretches the sky.

When Turtle learned that Anung’s journey would take them to a distant island he did not want to leave Turtle Island so he decided to stay. His gift for Anung was to teach him the chant that would call on the Great Sea Turtle to bring him help should he need it, and then they said goodbye.

All the people of the city and all of the travelers gathered on the beach as a procession of singers led the warriors chosen to launch Anung’s canoe from the beach and out into the water, pushing it past the waves. They had been singing songs of this Anishinaabe boy and of his people in his village as they walked across the sands with him. As he headed off shore they sang to him that he was now the son of each of the tribes and of the brother of all of the people.

Anung liked this song, and he sang it as he shot down the back side of the waves. When the wind caught the sail he was excited to feel the power. He set the tiller to sail to the East, and for this moment he forgot he was afraid.

When the sail caught the first wind and the canoe leapt forward over the waves like a deer jumping over a brush pile the people stopped singing. They stood together and watched silently all day until the canoe and then the great red sun painted on the sail disappeared in the dusk where the new sun would rise the next morning. Then they went back to the city and continued their celebration.

The winds filled Anung’s sail and pushed him along his true course, to the East and the island of the greatest chief of all the people. He looked back to see how quickly these winds were driving him away from Turtle Island and when the people became so small he could only see them as small dark shapes on a beach his fear of being all alone out on this great body of water returned. He studied the many symbols and images that had been painted on the sail and that comforted him.

When the elders showed Anung how to control the sail they told him to take it down at night so shifting night winds would not blow him off course while he slept. As it grew dark the first night he released the bindings that held the sail in place. He draped the hide over the rigging and folded it into a shelter, and sat under it to rest.

He looked up at the stars. Far off he heard a splash, and then another, and later another, but all else was quiet. He played the drum softly so he wouldn’t disturb the silence, just calling to those spirits of the night close to him, asking them to comfort him, and he fell asleep dreaming of his village.

For many days the winds carried Anung’s canoe to the East. His sailing was fast so he traveled far. The elders showed him how trailing a long rope behind the canoe will help him keep his bearings. Once he was on the true course, all he had to do was steer the canoe so the rope behind him was always straight.

When another great distance was passed he would lean forward in the canoe to search the far horizons for land but saw none in any direction, and that would bring back his fear. But the winds continued, day after day, and because he had traveled great distances he hoped to find the island soon.

Then one morning as he raised his sail he found the winds had shifted so he lowered it again for it would have taken him off his course. Anung picked up his paddle and continued on his way to the island of the first sun. He paddled all that day, checking that the rope was always straight. Because he worked so hard that day he drank much more water and ate much more food than he had the days the winds had powered him along.

That night when he folded the sail for his shelter he was too tired to play the drum and he fell fast asleep.

The next day the winds did not blow at all and he had to paddle his course for the whole day. He was more frightened than ever, to be all alone in the middle of this great water, and now he was afraid that if the winds didn’t return he would run out of food and water before he found the island of the first sun.

Before he slept he played the drum and called on the spirits of Ninggabi’ anong to send his wind. For many days after that the West winds came and again he traveled great distances on his true course, his rope straight.

He played the drum every night.

During the first days of travel rain refreshed him, and washed him clean. Then came a time when there were many rain storms day and night. The wind tossed the waters back and forth and the waves crashed over the sides of canoes and he was always wet and cold and some of the food would be destroyed in each storm.

Each time the lightning and thunder approached with the dark clouds gathering, Anung lowered his sail and covered his food and his water with it. Before he tied this bundle to the mast he wrapped his drum in his shirt and tied it to the mast, under the bundle.

When he had to paddle his canoe over waves nearly as tall as the trees of his forest he would tie himself to the canoe as well, for many times the waves nearly washed him away.

After every storm Anung knew to wait until dark for the stars to appear to regain his bearing, to mark East.

The last storm was the biggest. He was paddling across a mountain of a wave when it crashed down on top of him. The rope holding him to the canoe came undone and Anung was thrown from the canoe. As the water rushed over him he was confused and frightened. Then another great wave drove him down deeper and deeper into the water and he remembered the chant Turtle had taught him. He could not say it aloud but in his heart he sang it over and over.

It was dark and Anung was very afraid and when he swam he did not even know for certain if he was swimming to the surface.

Soon Anung’s lungs began to ache. But he kept singing the chant in his heart.

It was getting colder and darker and he realized he had not been swimming to the surface but deeper into the water. He was out of breath.

Soon he was so close to death he thought he saw the glimmering lights of the Path of Souls to the next world. That was when the Great Sea Turtle swam into view. Anung grabbed on to the edge of its massive shell and the Great Sea Turtle swam back to the surface with Anung holding tight.

When they surfaced Anung gulped a big breath of air. Then he saw the storm had passed.