Le terme Ojibwé vient de Outchibou, nom donné au XVIIe siècle à un groupe qui vivait au nord de ce qui est aujourd’hui Sault Ste. Marie, en Ontario.Voici un de leur conte : The dogs fight (en anglais).
Les Ojibwés faisaient partie d’une série de groupes très proches, mais distincts, occupant un territoire situé entre le nord-est de la baie Géorgienne et l’est du lac Supérieur. Ces peuplades qui se rassemblent près de la ville actuelle de Sault Ste. Marie sont aussi appelées Saulteaux, un terme qui désigne aujourd’hui principalement les peuples ojibwés du nord-ouest de l’Ontario et du sud-est du Manitoba.
There was a man who mulled things over in his mind and decided
he needed to talk things over with his neighbors; he felt they might
be able to help him with his dilemma. He invited them over for a
social pipe ceremony and of course a good meal to go along with
it. For the meal there was wild rice with wild leek in it and a
big beautiful piece of roasted venison sirloin for each of the guests.
With each of his guests seated around his wigwam and their meal
in front of them, he passed his pipe around for each to smoke. Then
he spoke to them, « I asked you here because I find myself in
a dilemma. I am new among you and have no leader, no chief. I have
no idea who that person should be and I figured as my neighbors,
because you have come to know me, you might know who should be my chief. »
Quickly one person spoke and pointed at a man across from him,
« That man should be your chief. »
Another man in the room started laughing and said, « He is
not a chief! He is an idiot who could not find his way around the
outside of a wigwam. »
Thereupon the man who he insulted reached over and grabbed that
man’s piece of sirloin and put it in his mouth to eat it. The other
man then bite into his leg and the man dropped the sirloin. He then
picked up his sirloin and put it in his mouth to eat. The insulated
one then bit him and again the meat was dropped and he picked it
up to eat it. This went on back and forth all night long, until
there was very little left of the sirloin and both men had dropped dead.
The Great Spirit was not happy with these two so he assigned the
spirit of each to a dog. It is said today that every dog has these
spirits in them and that is why when dogs meet they often get into fights.
It is also said that this too is why we two-legged ones are envious
of each other in so many ways, wither it be for power, glory, fame,
money, love or all the other emotional possession we like to hoard.
This is why when people meet every so often they get into fights.
