Three Sisters (Great Lakes)
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In Ojibwa mythology, at the waters of Thunder Bay, Ontario (Canada), a group of mariners found three islands which provided safe shelter from the storms that lashed Lake Superior. According to the legend, the aptly named "Welcome Islands" had a strange origin:
Many years ago there lived a great Ojibwa Chieftain, loved and respected by his people for his kindness and love of children. Besides two fine sons, the Chief had four daughters.
The three older girls were cruel and haughty, but the fourth and youngest was tender and of a dreaming nature. She loved to roam the forest and talk to the birds and little animals and would sometimes tell her family of strange conversations she had with the spirits of the forest. Her sisters would deride her but her father, understanding her better, loved her all the more for her kind simplicity.
One day the young maiden heard the great and kindly voice of Nanabijou. Nanabijou had chosen her to be the bride of his son, North Star. That evening, she told her family when and where she was to meet the Great Spirit’s son. The sisters laughed mockingly and accused her of being sick in the head. The Chief, angered by their cruel treatment of his youngest daughter, beat the daughters with a strip of deer hide.
Full of hate because of the punishment, the sisters planned the younger girl's death. Recalling the place and time of the meeting, they followed their sister into the woods. North Star, being a spirit, could not be seen by the elder sisters. Thus, as the young sister embraced North Star and they shot their arrows into her heart, the arrows also pierced North Star’s heart. Instead of falling, their sister was borne gently upward into the sky by the spirit. Frightened by what they saw, the sisters ran wildly through the woods. Nanabijou, furious at their deed, turned them into stone and hurled them into the waters of Thunder Bay.
Today the three islands are known as Lake Superior's Three Sisters.
