The Corn Hero of the Ojibwe (Ojibwa, Ojibway) people, known as Wunzh, occupies an important place in Ojibwe folklore and mythology. The story was recorded by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in the 1820s and later served as a source for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855). In the Ojibwe account, Wunzh wrestled with the heavenly spirit on four different days and brought back the gift of corn, thereby providing a permanent source of food to sustain his people.
The legend, as recorded by Schoolcraft and Mathews in The Indian Fairy Book (1869), begins long ago in a beautiful part of the country where a poor but thankful man lived with his wife and children. He had much trouble getting food for his family because he was not a great hunter, and his children, though plentiful, were too young to join him on the hunt. Nevertheless, the man was contented and grateful for the good gifts he had, and this same spirit was found in his son Wunzh.
When Wunzh came of age, when he was old enough to live on his own, he performed the ceremonial fast in which he sought a vision from the spirit world. His father built him a lodge in a remote place where Wunzh could live without distractions until his spirit guardian should come to him. While he fasted, Wunzh walked through the forest and pondered the plants poking their heads through the soil to greet the spring air. “How do these plants grow?” Wunzh wondered as he walked. He felt that if he knew more, he surely could help his people. He wondered why the Great Spirit had made getting food so difficult and wished that it were easier.
On the third day of his fast as he lay on his bed dizzy and weak from hunger, he saw a figure descend from the sky. It was robed in beautiful yellow and green garments with a plume of feathers waving on its stately head. It landed at the foot of Wunzh’s bed and spoke in a melodic voice: “The Great Spirit has heard your prayers. You do not seek the path of a warrior or glory for yourself. Your desire is to help your people. To grant this request, you must wrestle with me.” Wunzh’s heart sank. He was so weak from fasting that he had no strength to wrestle this heavenly being. But his heart was filled with purpose because through his efforts he might be able to help his people. Wunzh rose and threw himself at the spirit, and they wrestled until Wunzh’s strength was utterly gone. The spirit rose, smiled, and said, “That is enough. You wrestled well. I will come tomorrow to try you again.” The spirit ascended into the setting rays of the sun.
The next day, Wunzh felt even weaker, but when the spirit appeared a second time, Wunzh’s courage and determination surpassed his strength. He wrestled the spirit with even more resolve than he had the day before. When all his strength was spent, the spirit said, “That is enough. You wrestled very well. I will come again tomorrow.” The third day, after a lengthy wrestling match, the spirit declared that Wunzh had beaten him and sat next to the young warrior. He said, “The Great Spirit is pleased with your courage. Tomorrow is your seventh day of fasting. Your father will be bringing you food, but do not eat it until sundown. I will come again tomorrow, and you will vanquish me. You must strip my clothes from me and bury me in the ground. Do not let weeds grow on my grave and visit it often to see if I have returned. When I reappear, your prayer will be answered, and you will be able to help your people.” The spirit returned into the rays of the setting sun.
On the seventh day, Wunzh’s father appeared with food. “I will eat the food at sundown,” Wunzh said. “I have reasons for extending my fast.” He waited outside for the spirit to appear, and when he did, Wunzh wrestled him until the spirit no longer moved. Seeing that he was dead, Wunzh stripped off the spirit’s beautiful, green garments and placed his body in the ground. He returned to the lodge and ate the food that his father brought.
All during the spring and summer, Wunzh returned to the spot where he had buried the spirit. He tended the grave so that no weeds grew on it. After a time, a beautiful, green shoot sprang up from the grave. As the summer progressed, it turned into a tall, stately plant with nodding plumes and yellow clusters. Wunzh brought his father to the spot. “It is my friend! It is Mondawmin! It is corn! We no longer must hunt for all our food.” Wunzh showed his father how to peel back the green husk of the plant to reveal the golden kernels inside and the secret of burying the corn in the earth so it could return to life a thousandfold to bless the Ojibwe people.
Mary L. Sellers
See also Corn Mother; Culture Heroes of the Native Americans; Great Spirit
Further Reading
Leeming, David Adams. 1981. Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero. New York: Harper & Row.
“Native American Maize (Corn) Mythology.” 2015. Native Languages of the Americas website. http://www.native-languages.org/legends-corn.htm. Accessed July 31, 2015.
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, and Cornelius Mathews. 1869. The Indian Fairy Book: From the Original Legends. York, PA: Allen Bros.
Treuer, Anton, ed. 2001. Living Our Language: Ojibwe Tales & Oral Histories. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.