THE CRYING WOMAN OF MANITOU FALLS

[Carol Anne Kincaid~Paradis]

The Crying Woman of Manitou Falls

 I would like to share with you is a story about a waterfall that cries. This falls was called Manitou Falls, and the word manitou in Ojibwe means spirit, so when translated to english, it means “spirit falls.” She told me that the people who lived by the falls said they heard a woman crying, and she would cry and cry every night. My Grandmother said

They used to see a picture, like a shadow of a woman in the falls, in the mist, and she was crying and they never knew why, why this woman was crying.

So the woman they saw was actually the falls, or the spirit of the falls, within the mist of the water. Like my Grandmother said, the reason this woman was so sad and crying every night was unknown. Then one day, these other people came and built a dam where Manitou Falls once lives, and Manitou Falls disappeared.

Manitou, the woman whose cries echoed throughout the forest, the misty shadow the people saw within the falling water, and whose tears fell into her flowing river, was never heard from again after the dam was put up. Maybe once in a while, I hope, she returns to her waters, or where her water used to be. This story reminds me of how important nature is. I always end up thinking twice when I’m walking among the trees or near the water, thinking maybe a spirit lives here too, and I am merely a lucky visitor who gets to walk alongside them in their home.