There once was a Hotcâk village where a boy lived with his father and mother. When he became of age, he began to fast in order to get blessings from the spirits. To encourage his devotions, they made a small oval lodge for him just outside his parents' lodge. Every day he cried to the spirits, and in the evening he would return to his lodge. Then his father would visit him, and ask, "My son, what spirits have blessed you this day?" But his son would always answer that so far he had not dreamt of anything. As a consequence, his father forbade him to eat anything at all. Night after night the boy would report that he had not dreamt, and again his father would give him nothing at all to eat. Soon the boy became very pitiable indeed. On the tenth night he asked, "Father, might I take a little something tonight? If I do not eat I will certainly die." "No," his father replied, "perhaps tomorrow you will be able to eat."

Finally, the next day they decided to feed the boy. His mother made some hominy for him, and his father brought it out to the boy. As he entered the boy's lodge, unexpectedly he saw a robin fly out the smoke hole, yet his son was not to be seen anywhere. The father saw the bird land on a branch and sing,

I'm a bird,
I'm a bird!

After that, his son was never seen again. Ever after when robins appear in the spring, they have always sung this boy's song. [1]

Comparative Material. The Anishinaabe story is somewhat different. There a boy named "Iadilla" fasts, but receives a visitation from an evil spirit, so he asks his father if he may stop his fast and start over at a more propitious time. His father denies the request, and the boy fasts on for a long time. The evil spirit takes pity on him and instead of cursing his future, turns him into a robin as a tribute to his filial devotion. The boy tells his father that as a robin he shall be a cheerful presence around human dwellings, but his glory as a human will never come to be. [2]

Links: Bird Spirits.

Stories: about Bird Spirits: Crane and His Brothers, The King Bird, Bird Origin Myth, Bird Clan Origin Myth, Wears White Feathers on His Head, Old Man and White Feathers, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, The Thunderbird, Owl Goes Hunting, Partridge's Older Brother, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Foolish Hunter, Ocean Duck, Earthmaker Sends Rucewe to the Twins, The Quail Hunter, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Arrival Myth, Trickster Gets Pregnant, Trickster and the Geese, Holy One and His Brother (kaghi, woodpeckers, hawks), Porcupine and His Brothers (Ocean Sucker), Turtle's Warparty (Thunderbirds, eagles, kaghi, pelicans, sparrows), Kaghíga and Lone Man (kaghi), The Old Man and the Giants (kaghi, bluebirds), The Bungling Host (snipe, woodpecker), The Red Feather, Trickster, the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Meadow Lark, Warughápara, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Black and White Moons, The Markings on the Moon, The Creation Council, He Who Eats the Stinking Part of the Deer Ankle, Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega), Hare Acquires His Arrows, Keramanic'aka's Blessing (black hawk, owl), Worúxega (eagle), The Arrows of the Medicine Rite Men (eagle), The Gift of Shooting (eagle), Hotcâk Clans Origin Myth, Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, The Hotcâk Migration Myth, Blue Jay, The Baldness of the Buzzard, The Abduction and Rescue of Trickster (buzzards), The Shaggy Man (kaghi), The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth (kaghi), Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers (Loon), Great Walker's Medicine (loon), Roaster (woodsplitter), The Spirit of Gambling, The Big Stone (a partridge), Trickster's Anus Guards the Ducks, The Fleetfooted Man, The Journey to Spiritland (v. 4) -- see also Thunderbirds; mentioning robins: Partridge's Older Brother; about fasting blessings: Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega), The Difficult Blessing, The Boy who would be Immortal, The Woman Who Fought the Bear, The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits, The Seer, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Nightspirits Bless Djobenâgiwíñxga, Disease Giver Blesses Djobenâgiwíñxga, The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, Aratcgéga's Blessings, Great Walker's Medicine, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Man who was Blessed by the Sun, Holy Song, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Plant Blessing of Earth, The Blessing of Cokeboka, The Tap the Head Medicine, The Sweetened Drink Song, Ancient Blessing.

Themes: a father is too demanding of his son: Moiety Origin Myth; someone fasts a long time without receiving a blessing: The Seer, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega); excessive fasting leads to adverse consequences: The Boy who would be Immortal; a person who fasts receives blessings from the spirits: The Blessings of the Buffalo Spirits, The Boy who was Blessed by a Mountain Lion, The Nightspirits Bless Djobenagiwíñxga, Ghost Dance Origin Myth I, Redhorn's Sons, The Woman Who Fought the Bear, The Seer, Maize Comes to the Hotcâgara, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, The Woman who Loved Her Half-Brother, The Boy who would be Immortal, The Thunderbird, Lake Wâkcikhomîgra (Mendota): the Origin of Its Name, Great Walker's Medicine, Cûgepaga, Earthmaker Blesses Wagícega (Wecgícega), A Man's Revenge, Aratcgéga's Blessings, The Blessing of a Bear Clansman, The Man who was Blessed by the Sun, The Girl who Refused a Blessing from the Wood Spirits, Buffalo Dance Origin Myth, The Man who Defied Disease Giver, White Thunder's Warpath, A Man and His Three Dogs, The Diving Contest, The Plant Blessing of Earth, Holy Song, The Tap the Head Medicine, The Blessing of Cokeboka, The Completion Song Origin, Paint Medicine Origin Myth, The Nightspirits Bless Tciwoit'éhiga, The Horse Spirit of Eagle Heights; people turn into birds: Warughápara (owl, Thunderbird), Worúxega (eagle), The Thunderbird (black hawk, hummingbird), The Dipper (black hawk, hummingbird), Keramanic'aka's Blessing (black hawk, owl), The Hotcâk Arrival Myth (ravens), The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I (turkey), The Quail Hunter (partridge), The Markings on the Moon (auk, curlew), The Fox-Hotcâk War (goose), The Fleetfooted Man (water fowl?); a young man turns into a bird and flies off through the smoke hole in his lodge: The Markings on the Moon, The Annihilation of the Hotcâgara I.

Notes:

[1] Charles E. Brown, Birchbark Tales: Animal Stories of the Wisconsin Indians (Madison: Wisconsin Folklore Society, 1941) 2-3.

[2] Schoolcraft's Ojibwa Lodge Stories: Life on the Lake Superior Frontier, ed. Philip P. Mason (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1997) 37-38. Compiled from letters written in 1826-1827; "Iadilla, or the Origin of the Robin," in Henry R. Schoolcraft, Schoolcraft's Indian Legends, ed. Mentor L. Williams (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1991 [1956]) 106-108.