Stories in the Sky

Interpretive panel illustrating the night sky and stars.

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Throughout time and across the world, people have gazed in wonder as points of light circled above them, reappearing in the same position at the same time each year. Like many cultures, the first people of this region named constellations after characters and objects from stories that illustrated their worldview. Where some see the Big Dipper, the Anishinaabek, saw an animal called a fisher whose travels around the North Star (Polaris) come to life in the legend excerpted below.

The Legend of Fisher and Skyland
Winter
One year, the winter did not end. A squirrel said to Fisher, "Go to the place where the skyland is closest to the Earth. There the skypeople are keeping summer. Go there and bring warm weather back." Fisher and his friends agreed and set out for skyland.

Spring
Otter and Lynx could not break through the sky, but Wolverine did. Fisher jumped through the hole. Finding the world's birds caged, Fisher released them. He then made the hole bigger and summer began to leak into the land below, melting the snow.

Summer
The sky people chased after Fisher. But Fisher knew that if he didn't make the hole big enough, the sky people would seal it up and winter would rule again. So he kept chewing the sky hole larger, while dodging the arrows of the sky people.

Autumn
Finally, however, an arrow struck Fisher just about his tail. He rolled over on his back and began to fall towards the world below. Gitchee Manitou honored him for his bravery and placed him among the stars. Each year he circles the heavens.