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Standing on the shores of Thunder Bay at the head of the great Lake Superior,
one can perceive, on looking out across the waters of Thunder Bay, a great
land formation situated directly in the mouth of the Bay.
It requires no imagination whatever to see that this form resembles the
sleeping body of a giant, arms folded across his massive chest as in the
majesty of death.
Mystery and legend surround the origin of this strange phenomenon of nature
and down through the ages the following story seems to have survived.
On an island just outside Thunder Bay, now known as "Isle Royale", once lived
a great tribe of Ojibway Natives.
Because of their loyalty to their Gods, and their peaceful and industrious
mode of living, Nanabijou, the Spirit of the Deep Sea Water, decided to reward
them.
One day he called their Chief to his great Thunder Temple on the mountain and
warned him that if he told the secret to the white man, that he, Nanabijou
would be turned to stone and the Ojibway tribe perish.
The Chief gave his promise, and Nanabijou told him of the rich silver mine,
now known as "Silver Islet". The Great Spirit told him to go to the highest
point on Thunder Cape, and here he would find the entrance to a tunnel that
would lead him to the centre of the mine.
Apparently the Chief and his people found the mine, for the Ojibway became
famous for their beautiful silver ornaments. So beautiful indeed were they,
that the Sioux warriors on seeing them upon their wounded enemies, strove to
wrest their secret from them.
However, torture and even death failed to make the gallant Ojibway divulge
their secret and the Sioux chieftains had to devise another scheme to find the
source of the Ojibway silver.
One day they summoned their most cunning scout to a pow-wow and a plan was
formed. The scout was to enter the Ojibway camp disguised as one of them. This
he did and in a few days succeeded in learning the secret of the island of silver.
Going to the mine at night he took several large pieces of the precious metal
in order to prove to his chieftain that he had fulfilled his mission.
The scout however never returned to his camp, for on his way back he stopped
at a white traders post to purchase some food. Having no furs or money with
which to pay for the goods, he used a piece of the silver.
Upon seeing such a large piece of the gleaming metal, two white men sought to
obtain the whereabouts of its source, in order to make themselves fabulously
rich. After filling the Sioux scout with liquor they persuaded him to show
them the way to the mine.
When almost in sight of "Silver Islet" a terrific storm broke over the Cape.
The white men were drowned and the Native was found in a crazed condition
floating aimlessly in his canoe, but the most extraordinary thing that had
happened during the storm, was that where once was a wide opening to the bay,
now lay what appeared to be a great sleeping figure of a man. The Great
Spirit's warning had been fulfilled and he had been turned to stone.
On a little island at the foot of the Sleeping Giant, can still be seen the
partly submerged shafts of what was once the richest silver mine in the
northwest. White men have tried again and again to pump out the water that
keeps flooding it from Lake Superior but without success. Is it still under
the curse of Nanabijou, Spirit of the Deep Sea Water... perhaps...who can tell?
There are numerous versions of the Legend of the Sleeping Giant and one is not
necessarily more valid than another. This particular one was published in a
booklet entitled "Tales of The Tom Tom", written probably in the 1950s or
1960s, by Hubert Limbrick, a former Fort William alderman.
Actual Ojibway legends are stories about Nanabijou printed in local
19th-century newspapers. These stories reportedly came directly from Ojibway
elders interviewed at the time but there's no way of verifying that. The
earliest dates from 1882 while another version dates from somewhat later.
These versions are completely different from Limbrick's rather simplistic and
fanciful one, and neither makes direct mention of the Sleeping Giant. They
talk about how Nanabijou created the world, including the lakes, rivers and
islands.
Limbrick's story seems to be connected with Silver Islet and, as such, must be
of relatively recent origin as the mine was not discovered until the late
19th-century.
There is also a version in W.S. Piper's "The Eagle of Thunder Cape" (1924)
that mentions the creation of the Sleeping Giant (pages 117-119 in the 2001
reprint by the Thunder Bay Historical Museum) but it also bears no resemblance
to Limbrick's.
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