Algon and the Sky Girl is an Algonquin sky legend, as well as an animal legend pertaining to the falcon. It tells of a great hunter named Algon (from which we get the tribal name Algonquin) and a beautiful maiden who descended to the prairie from the sky. Algon fell in love with her, abducted her, married her, and had a son with her. Homesick, the woman took their son and returned to the sky country. When the boy grew up, he and the Sky Girl returned to Algon, who then accompanied them back to the sky country bearing animal tokens from earth. Seeing their love for both worlds, the sky chief allowed them to become falcons, or (depending on the version of the story) turned them into falcons so that they and their descendants might always swoop high into the skies and down to the woods and prairies.
Algon had to resort to animal trickery and charms to capture Sky Girl. One day while out hunting in the prairie, he discovered a strange circle in the grass. Algon hid in the brush to observe and learn what had caused the odd formation. After a while, a big willow basket with twelve lovely maidens descended from the sky. The girls got out and began singing heavenly songs and doing circle dances. All were lovely, but Algon fell in love with the youngest. He ran toward the basket, hoping to steal the girl away, but the alarmed maidens flew off into the sky. Each of the next three days, Algon waited for the basket to land and tried to seize the girl, but each time he was too slow.
Having seen his love and her companions land four times in the field, only to have her flee before he could get his hands on her, Algon realized that his mighty hunting powers wouldn’t work for this form of prey, so he devised a tricky strategy. Using charms from his medicine bag, Algon transformed himself into a mouse. He hid with a mouse family near the spot where Sky Girl and her companions always touched down. When the basket landed and the girls began their dancing and singing, Algon and the other mice scurried among the maidens. As the maidens stomped and killed the other mice, amidst the chaos Algon transformed back into a human and carried off Sky Girl.
Sky Girl did come to love Algon, and they lived happily for some years before she grew unbearably homesick for the sky country. She spent all day staring into the sky, and eventually built a willow basket and flew away with their son while Algon was out hunting. Algon became sad and lonely, and grew old watching the prairie circle where he first saw Sky Girl, hoping she would return with their son.
As the son grew to manhood, he naturally asked questions about his father, and Sky Girl came to miss her husband. She got permission from her father, the chief of the sky people, to go down to earth, on condition that they return with Algon and with physical tokens of each of the earth animals so the sky people could learn about them. When they landed, Algon was overjoyed to see them and agreed to gather the physical features of the animals, specifically a bear claw; feathers from an eagle, hawk, and falcon; the teeth of a raccoon; and the horns and hide of a deer.
The reunited family ascended in the willow basket to the sky country bearing the tokens, which the chief distributed among the sky people. He granted his daughter and Algon their choice of an animal gift, and they selected the falcon feather. With that, they were transformed into falcons, and they and their descendants are ever free to soar between the sky and the earth.
Douglas J. King
See also Culture Heroes of the Native Americans
Further Reading
Blue Panther. 2014. “Algon and the Sky Girl.” http://www.manataka.org/page389.html. Accessed August 20, 2015.
First People: The Legends. 2014. “Algon and the Sky Girl.” http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/AlgonandtheSkyGirl-Algonquin.html. Accessed August 20, 2015.
Leland, Charles G. 2012. Algonquin Legends. New York: Dover.