Legends of the Mississaugas

Edith Fowke is a professor emeritus at York University and author of the
recently published Canadian Folklore: Perspectives on Canadian Culture.

This lovely small book presents Mills’s extended poem based on the
creation myth of the Mississaugas.

The book begins with a brief history of the Mississaugas, a branch of
the Algonquins who called themselves Anishinabeg. Originally from
northern Ontario, they moved south, and after fierce fighting with the
Iroquois (whom they called Natowe, their word for snake), the
Mississaugas settled in southern Ontario near the lower Credit River.
When the British bought the land in 1805, they resettled briefly north
of the Credit, and in 1826 they moved to the Grand River Reserve near
Brantford.

Alexander Chamberlain collected and wrote down their myths and legends
for his Ph.D. thesis, published in 1888, and from these Mills fashioned
his poem in 1923.

It tells of an Indian maiden, Wabanoqua, who listened to the tales told
in a wigwam on an autumn evening. She heard of the cruel Natowe who
oppressed the Mississauga ’til at last they smoked a peace pipe. Then
she heard the ancient stories, how Little Turtle made the sun and moon
and stars, and of Nanabozho who was good, but the people were evil, and
because “the earth was filled with slaughter,” Toad, the Keeper of
the Waters, sent forth the flood. Nanabozho took refuge on the highest
mountain and saved “twain of the beasts of field and forest, twain of
creeping things and wild-fowl.” He climbed the tallest cedar, and made
it grow beyond the waters, then formed a raft of cedar boughs. First he
sent the loon, then the otter and the beaver, down to look for earth to
build on, but they all failed ’til 40 days passed. Then the muskrat
went down and came back with soil from which Nanabozho created a new
earth.

This is typical of creation myths of aboriginals, but it is cast in a
very appealing form, and illustrated by 11 paintings that Mamakeesick, a
young Oji-Cree artist, has fashioned to depict the story.

A glossary explains the Mississauga names used, and source material
about the Mississaugas is listed. Altogether a fine book.