THE GREAT SPIRIT

[Carol Anne Kincaid~Paradis]

HAPPY TRAILS X

The Story of the Sleeping Bear Dunes

According to a Chippewa legend a forest fire on the Wisconsin shoreline forced a mother bear and her two cubs into Lake Michigan. The cubs became tired and fell behind their mother and eventually drowned within sight of the shoreline. The mother made it to the shore and climbed to the top of a dune to look for her cubs, but they were gone. The mother waited there for days in hopes that her cubs would appear. The Great Spirit was moved by the mother’s devotion and commitment to find her cubs and covered the mother in a blanket of sand so she would have a final resting place and be able to reunite with her cubs. It is said that the mother is still lying in this spot today waiting for her cubs to appear. The Great Spirit also created two islands to mark the spot where the cubs had drowned. The two islands are known today as the North and South Manitou Islands. The Sleeping Bear Dunes are located on the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in the city of Leelanau.

The Great Spirit
The Great Spirit was believed to rule over the whole universe. All Indians believed in the great spirit and they believed all living things had a spirit of its own. The Great Spirit was a spirit that all the Native Americans believed to say it ruled over the universe. When Native Americans die they believe that when they die that the Spirit will come back and return to what they have killed and eaten so that the new generation of the people and plants and animals can live. The Native Americans also believe in another Great Spirit called the Wankan Tanka. It was based on the appease ‘the spirits’ which they did in a variety of ways. The rituals and beliefs displayed in ceremonies show a blending of interest by promoting and preserving there hunting and farming and the survival of its people and showing the respect of the spirit. The ceremonies and rituals to worship appease the spirit and this was included in the North American culture. Navajo Yeii Spirit. A spirit considered by the Navajo to be a mediator between man and his creator. Yeiis control natural forces, such as day and night, rain, wind, sun & others. A very exceptional kind of yeii is the Yei'bi'chai, grandparent spirit or "talking God" who can speak to man, teaching him how to live in harmony with all living things by following some simple rules of behavior.

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