Cloud Catcher and Moon Woman

I decided to write about Cloud Catcher and Moon Woman because of the very fact that it is an Ojibway legend. I have long been fascinated by the Native American culture but the Ojibway tribe holds a special fascination and a place in my heart. The story begins like this...

Growing up my parents owned a resort on Blueberry Lake in Couderay Wisconsin. This may seem like trivial or insignificant information except for one very important fact. Rustic Hills Resort in Couderay Wisconsin was located on the La Courte Oreilles Reservation a part of the Ojibway Nation. I remember well my first encounter with a real live Indian. As a child of eleven it was magic, like meeting a movie star. My only exposure to the Native American culture up to that point was what came from television and the movies. You know the man looking at the land and a tear coming down his cheek because of the pollution, Tonto, Pocahontas and so many other fascinating people projected into my mind. I loved them and wanted to be an Indian Princess in the worst way. How beautiful and brave they were, there was something there, that even as an ideal on television, spoke to me and reached to my very core. After that first initial meeting with, Johnny Red Feather, and the more interaction I had with the members of the tribe. I came to realize that they were just like me but with a very different way of life, one that I did and still do find so wondrous.

I have attended a naming ceremony that the tribe held for my sister because she was born on the reservation. I have been witness to a Powwow and have had the pleasure to listen first hand and hear some of the many stories, experiences I will never forget. Part of the beauty of these stories/legends is in the way they are told by the people from whence they come. So reading them is not exactly the same, I missed the connection a storyteller gives to the heart of the legend. I found the legend of Moon woman and Cloud Catcher and was further intrigued by a reference in the beginning of the story to a Greek Myth about Diana and Endymon. I love to read about the Greek and Roman Gods so this was a win, win for me.

For a legend and a myth that have been handed down generation to generation by two very different cultures thousands of miles apart who would not of known of each other to be able to infringe on a copyright, these two legends are very similar. They have all the things a great story should have, ultimate love, mystical beings, sacrifice and selfishness, in the name of love, of course. Moon Woman/Diana, a being of the Moon sees Cloud Catch/Endymon and falls instantly in love with his beauty. Against all odds she takes him to her home to live with her, they are married. He of course, not content with all the love, beauty and magic he has been given, wants to leave and go back to his home. She releases him to go back to earth but with a warning that is basically, we are still married so no cheating. He doesn't