Wunzh (American Indian folktale)
Wunzh is an important American Indian folktale originating from the Ojibwa people of the Great Lakes and Plains regions. The story centers around a kind-hearted boy named Wunzh, who undergoes a vision quest—a traditional rite of passage involving fasting and solitude to seek spiritual guidance and self-discovery. During the quest, Wunzh encounters a spirit-man who tests his resolve and ultimately teaches him how to help humanity. After a series of challenges, Wunzh successfully wrestles the spirit-man and, following his guidance, buries him. From this burial site, corn, referred to as Mondawmin and symbolizing sustenance for humanity, emerges. This narrative not only explains the origin of corn but also highlights the significance of vision quests in Ojibwa culture, emphasizing moral living and communal betterment. Wunzh's journey illustrates the deep spiritual connection of the Ojibwa to nature and their belief in supernatural guidance, making him a legendary figure and a role model within their mythology. The tale has been further popularized in literature, notably by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem "The Song of Hiawatha."
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Subject Terms
Wunzh (American Indian folktale)
Author: Traditional Ojibwa
Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE
Country or Culture: North America
Genre: Folktale
PLOT SUMMARY
A kindhearted boy named Wunzh is born to poor, but benevolent and spiritually devout parents. When Wunzh comes of age, his father builds a small lodge some distance from their home so the young man can undergo the keiguishimowin ceremony, or vision quest. This rite of passage requires a week of fasting in a solitary setting, and is undertaken to encourage men to find meaning and direction in life with the help of spiritual guides. As Wunzh begins his vision quest, he spends the first few days walking through the woods and over the mountains, where he examines the plants, berries, and flowers. He yearns for a better understanding of what makes plants nutritious or succulent, while others are poisonous or have beneficial medicinal properties. He wonders why the Great Spirit has not provided more edible plants instead of requiring humans to hunt and fish for their food.
As Wunzh fasts, he becomes weaker and soon confined to his bed. While lying there, he envisions a man dressed in varying shades of green and yellow with a plume of feathers on his head that wave in the breeze. The man speaks about being sent by the Great Spirit to teach Wunzh how to fulfill his desire to help humans. He then tests Wunzh’s commitment to bettering humanity by challenging him to wrestle. Although a little weak, Wunzh accepts the challenge and wrestles until he is spent. The next day, when he is even weaker, the spirit-man returns and Wunzh repeats the challenge, using his mind to overcome his physical adversity. Impressed, the man warns that he will be back one more day and that Wunzh must again win the wrestling challenge in order to succeed at his quest. The next day, Wunzh proves himself by conquering the spirit-man one more time. The man then rewards Wunzh with additional instructions to follow over the course of the next few months.
The next day, the seventh day of the fast, Wunzh’s father brings him a light meal; however, Wunzh declines to eat it until sundown, per the spirit-man’s instructions. Later that day, the man appears and Wunzh draws upon all his inner courage and physical will to conquer him in a wrestling match. With supernatural strength, he throws the man on the ground and removes his yellow and green clothing and feathers. When he is sure the man is dead, he buries him, as instructed.
After Wunzh returns to the lodge, he eats some of his father’s meal, careful not to gorge himself lest he become sick. In the days that follow, he secretly returns to the grave to watch for any plant growth. Soon he notices shoots poking through the ground. Over the course of the next few months, he keeps the plot weeded of grass and wildflowers. By the end of summer, the plants have grown tall with silky hair and golden husks growing from the sides. Just as the spirit-man had predicted, it is Mondawmin, the corn plant, Wunzh’s “friend of all mankind” (Leeming 84).
Wunzh brings his father to the site and shares the details of his vision quest while pulling off the husks to reveal the ears of corn inside, just as he had pulled off the spirit-man’s clothing while wrestling. He tells his father how they are to cook the corn over a fire, and then the family feasts. And that is how corn came into the world.
SIGNIFICANCE
Narratives that explain the origin of corn are endemic to many American Indian mythologies. This folktale comes from the Ojibwas (also known as Ojibwes, Anishinaabeg, Ojibways, or Chippewas) of the Great Lakes and Plains regions of the United States, and is included in David Adams Leeming’s Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero (1998). What sets this apart from the others is the focus on the Ojibwa vision quest as a path to enlightenment and to the betterment of humankind. A ritual undertaken by boys as a passage to adulthood, the vision quest has historically relied upon the altered state of consciousness made possible by the separation of the individual from people, food, and other comforts of life. It represents the American Indians’ strong faith in drawing upon spirits to help guide people to purposeful lives. Living an inspiring, moral life has long been an important component of Ojibwa society. If the vision quest is not successful the first time around, adults are encouraged to continue undertaking them until they do find the right vocation for which they are intended or to receive guidance in another realm of life. The vision quest has also historically been a test of physical stamina that tended to separate the boys from the men, with death from starvation or other causes sometimes being one of the unfortunate consequences.
For his highly successful vision quest, Wunzh became known as the Father of Corn and has served as a legendary, heroic role model and spiritual guide to American Indians ever since. His story became more widespread during the mid-nineteenth century, when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) based his poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855) on Wunzh. Longfellow dedicated chapter 5, “Hiawatha’s Fasting,” to detailing the spiritual quest. Here he describes Hiawatha’s initial meeting with Mondamin, another youth in the poem:
And he saw a youth approaching,
Dressed in garments green and yellow,
Coming through the purple twilight,
Through the splendor of the sunset;
Plumes of green bent o’er his forehead,
And his hair was soft and golden. (lines 63–68)
The chapter ends with Mondamin giving forth “this new gift to the nations, / Which should be their food forever” (279–80).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Johnson, Basil. The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway. New York: Harper, 1995. Print.
Leeming, David Adams. “Wunzh.” Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. 82–84. Print.
Leeming, David Adams, and Jake Page. God: Myths of the Male Divine. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Hiawatha: A Poem. 1855. Chicago: Reilly, 1909. Print.
Mathews, Cornelius. The Enchanted Moccasins: And Other Legends of the American Indians. 1877. New York: AMS, 1970. Print.