Legend of the Sleeping Bear (A Narrated Tone Poem)

Legend of The Sleeping Bear by Catherine McMichael

Score and parts

Duration: 8:00

• Piccolo
• 3 C Flutes (all divisi)
• Alto Flute (divisi)
• Bass Flute
• Cello/Contrabass Flute
• Narrator

This is the legend of how the majestic dunes on the western shore of northern Michigan and the two islands called North and South Manitou came to be.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore gets its name from one dune in particular—the Mother Bear. Perched along the edge of the large dune that towers about Lake Michigan, this dune, at one time, resembled a sleeping bear. The Ashininaabek used the Mother Bear as a landmark and tell a story about how she came to be there.  Two different versions of the story are commonly told. These stories are an Anishinaabe (Odawa/Ottawa, Ojibway/Chippewa and Potawatomi) oral tradition of a sacred place within their homelands in the Great Lakes.