1. Glooskap and Malsum were nowhere near the Great Lakes;
2. Muzzu-Kummik-Quae is no longer in the story;
3. Gitchi Manitou retreated from the second Island and it was Geezhigo-Quae who showed interest in it;
4. They're called "Pukwudjininees," not "Pukwudjinees";
5. The spirits and Wendigoes and such (but not the Michinimakinong) existed BEFORE the second Island; it was the Island's destruction, in fact, that led to the Wendigoes turning into dust;
6. Stick-In-The-Dirt was not the first Islander Francois met--that would be Silver Eagle Feather.
Most of the other details are pretty much accurate. Events in this history can be read about in more detail in these stories, given in chronological order:
"Hatred's Birth" (origin of the feud between Ocryx and Ocryana)
"Unleashed" (Ocryx's release from Devil's Lake)
"A Bad Wind Rising" (resurrection of the Wendigo GeeBees)
"Reawakening" (Ocryana's release from the Island)
"Alpha & Beta" (Ocryx's "creation" of Mitchi Manitou)
"Stranger In A Strange Land" (Francois's "discovery" of the Island)
You'll also notice that Manabozho's history is extremely glossed over, probably on purpose. I likely meant to write more of this but didn't; in any case, you can read as much more as you want in the serials themselves! In addition, there's a second, more up-to-date (but also incomplete) version of this history that you can also read.
The original author's note precedes the story.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a brief history of Manitou Island, the "shadow side" of Mackinac Island, as it appears in my stories. This is very rough and some details may be changed at a future time. This should cover events leading up to the serial, but not inclusive of it, so the only spoilers should be for the short Manitou Island stories.
At first the Island did not exist, as the area was covered in one great massive lake. Gitchi Manitou (the Great Spirit) was already in existence, as he had always been. He took little active role in what occurred upon and beneath the waters and in the surrounding areas. At this time, two manitous, Glooskap and his brother Malsum, were also in existence; they were lesser beings than Gitchi Manitou, yet greater than many of those to follow. Malsum, as the evil brother, had to be killed by Glooskap, who then retreated into the waters, making the great lake his home. With him went the lesser spirits and beings who served him, and they were no longer seen by any eyes for many years.
As the lake was now barren, Gitchi Manitou decided to create an island to fill the waters. This he did, but it vanished when a great flood covered the earth, and for a time he retreated back to his realm. Geezhigo-Quae (Sky Woman), a mother manitou, brought the Island back into existence by asking a muskrat to dive to the bottom of the waters and bring up a pawful of earth. This bit of mud re-formed the Island as Gitchi Manitou had created it. Geezhigo-Quae retreated to rule from the realm of the sky; her sister Muzzu-Kummik-Quae (Earth Mother) likewise ruled from the realm of the earth, both of them in locations not readily seen by others.
Now that the Island was again formed, Gitchi Manitou took a renewed interest in its survival. He created the lesser manitous, sprites, fairies, giants, and little beings to dwell upon it, but humans were not yet created. There were the turtle spirits, or Michinimakinong; the tribal manitous; the Nebaunaubae, or water folk; the Pukwudjinees, or small folk; the Uroona, giant protectors of the forests; the elementals of lesser sorts; and the Wendigoes, which consisted of the Windwalkers and the GeeBees. Back in these days, the GeeBees were beings of immense stature, but their disposition was such that they did not live long; indeed all of them died out very quickly, which was for the better, as up until then they had done nothing but terrorize the other beings upon the Island. The bodies of the GeeBees faded into dust which scattered upon the face of the Island, diminishing what power they had had.
Of the beings Gitchi Manitou created, he took the greatest care to create one of them, a male manitou in what would later be human form. This being he named Ocryx-Of-The-Glowing-Eyes, because of the creature's red-and-green glowing eyes, the only feature that made him appear more than human. To serve him as a companion, Gitchi Manitou created a female manitou, Ocryana-Who-Moves-Like-The-Wind. The two were to be each other's mates, and to keep one another company upon the Island, where they were the only ones of their kind ever created.
For a time the union worked, until Ocryana became filled with jealousy over Ocryx's power. The male manitou, granted, had been created with stronger medicine than her own, and a darkness in her spirit urged her to either seize this medicine for herself, or do away with the one who wielded it. As a means of doing this, she used her own medicine to transform Ocryx from a manitou into a demon, with the head of a wolf, the tail of a snake, and the wings of an eagle. Ocryx, upon awakening to find himself accursed with this new form, and unable to change back to himself, cursed Ocryana with the same form that she had forced upon him. This began the everlasting animosity between the two former mates, and they began a battle fit to tear apart the very Island they walked upon.
Gitchi Manitou, wanting to spare his creation once again, could think of no other alternative but to kill the two demons, or to separate them forcibly, and keep them subdued somehow. Reluctant to kill them--he had, after all, created them as well--he settled on the latter course, imprisoning Ocryx in a small inland lake, and locking Ocryana in a cave beneath the earth. The lesser manitous of the Island he instructed to set up warnings to others not to disturb the two demons from their slumber.
There was another reason Gitchi Manitou had not simply destroyed the demons. Being his greatest creations so far, they had been entrusted with the life of the Island, and so the death of one meant the death of Manitou Island itself. The three were irrevocably bound together in life and in death.
The power that held Ocryx in captivity he made the stronger of the two, fearing that the male demon could be the more dangerous; the lake was dried up, and the demon unable to be freed unless the basin should fill with water again. Though apparently shallow to the casual observer, the lake was in fact bottomless once filled, so it was believed that such an event would never come to pass. Ocryana, in the meantime, was imprisoned simply by placing enchanted rocks over her tomb, inscribing them with curses and warnings to keep away and not to open the cave she had been placed within. Though the more chaotic of the two demons, her power was not as strong, and so Gitchi Manitou did not fear her as much.
Either in the later days of the two Ocryxes (as this species of demon came to be known), or just after their interment, Gitchi Manitou created the humans. By this time, most of the manitous and other spirits had retreated to their own respective domains, the Uroona into the forests, the Nebaunaubae into the waters, the Windwalkers into the cold north, etc. As such, humans never formed as close a connection with these beings as these beings did with each other, and the spirits were regarded with awe and suspicion. Offerings were made to them frequently, and word was passed down from those closest to the newcomers, the tribal manitous, to keep away from the cursed lake and cave.
Many years passed, during which was the birth of the half-manitou Manabozho and his brothers, who formed a tentative link between mortals and the spirit world, even while dwelling mainly among humans. Of the four brothers raised by Nokomis (Manabozho's grandmother), Manabozho was the one who remained closest to the Island, making it his permanent home while the others wandered about as suited them. By now the humans lived in small camps and settlments scattered upon the Island and had formed their own tribes and clans. Only rarely did they venture away, to the mainland, as travel was known to be treacherous, and often those who left the Island simply never returned.
Unfortunately, despite the warnings placed at the resting places of the two demon Ocryxes, humans were not able to keep to the old promises to leave them alone. As time passed the stories behind the warnings became fainter and less distinct, until no one was certain what there was that was to be feared anymore. It was known that "something bad" dwelt within the lake, in particular, but no one could be sure what it was, or if it was even real. Eventually most came to believe the stories had been told merely to frighten children, and placed little faith in them.
In this atmosphere, a shaman, Stick-In-The-Dirt, was not as cautious as he should have been when he approached the lake to make an offering to whatever being dwelled within, in request of rain. His prayer managed to fill the lake to surging with water, which freed the demon within. Awakening to a changed world after so many years angered Ocryx, and in a rage he tore across the Island, destroying any and every tribe and settlement in his path--not out of vengeance, but simply out of mindless rage. Among the victims were Stick-In-The-Dirt's own tribe and his wife; gathering his daughters, he fled to another tribe to escape the demon, who eventually retreated back to his lake until the day that Ocryana should return--for it was her death or humiliation the demon had in mind.
Shortly after the freeing of Ocryx, with the waters again flowing within the Devil's Lake, springs formed in the area of the caves by the lake's shore, and water mixed with the ages-old dust that was lying about. This, plus a passing gust of wind, resurrected the GeeBees, though in substantially smaller form than what they had had before. The Wendigoes took up residence in the Devil's Kitchen, facing the great water, and resumed their terrorizing activities.
Ocryana's freedom came not too long after Ocryx's as well, when a hapless brave stumbled upon her place of imprisonment and moved the boulder that kept her contained, believing himself to be freeing a trapped woman. Ocryana promptly killed her rescuer and set out to find Ocryx. What happened afterwards is unclear, though she did return to her caves, and the two were as bitter enemies as ever.
The "creation" of Mitchi Manitou (Evil Spirit) came along when Ocryx sought out several tribes of manitous to populate his lake and serve him as needed. These manitous split off from the other tribal manitous to form the "lake manitous" of Ocryx, and became evil in disposition, shunned by their own kind.
It was after all these events had come to pass that the first European landed upon Manitou Island. A French voyageur by the name of Francois LaCroix paddled his canoe up to the shore, having been originally headed for Mackinac Island. He had become lost temporarily in a thick fog, but managed to find his way. However, almost immediately upon landing he knew something to be different about this Island, even though its geographic features were identical. On meeting Stick-In-The-Dirt--the first meeting between a white man and a native of the Island--he was informed that his suspicions were correct: He had not landed upon Mackinac Island, as he'd supposed. Rather this was another Island, the same and yet very different. Until now, it had not had a specific name; in later days, "Manitou Island" (Island of the Spirits) was what it was informally known as, and the name stuck.
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