Wenebojo Creates the Earth (After the Great Flood)
In the Algonquian creation story, the trickster-transformer Wenebojo (Nanabozho) caused a great flood through his battle with the underwater serpents who killed his brother. After the waters covered everything, Wenebojo floated on a log with the surviving animals. He asked the loon, then the otter, then the muskrat to dive to the bottom of the flood waters and bring up a pawful of earth. One by one they tried; each failed until the humble muskrat dove so deep he nearly died, but surfaced with a tiny bit of mud in his paw. From this mud, Wenebojo created a new earth, placing it on the back of a