Wisakedjak

Wisakedjak (Wìsakedjàk in Algonquin, Wīsahkēcāhk(w) in Cree and Wiisagejaak in Oji-cree) is the Crane Manitou found in northern Algonquian and Dene storytelling, similar to the trickster Nanabozho in Ojibwa aadizookaanan (sacred stories) and Inktonme in Assiniboine lore. He is generally portrayed as being responsible for a great flood which destroyed the world. In other stories he is also one of the beings who created the current world, either on his own, or with magic given to him by the Creator for that specific purpose. His name is found in a number of different forms in the related languages and cultures he appears in, including Weesack-kachack, Wisagatcak, Wis-kay-tchach, Wissaketchak, Woesack-ootchacht, Vasaagihdzak, and Weesageechak.

In contemporary indigenous literature and art

Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway (Cree) is a 1998 novel about the author and his brother's childhoods, their trauma resulting from the Canadian Indian residential school system, and his brother's death from AIDS. As the boys struggle to survive, Wisakedjak appears in the form of The Fur Queen, who watches over the boys as they fulfill their destiny to become artists.[1]

In 2010, two-spirit artist Kent Monkman (Cree) created a painting called Weesageechak Teaches Hermes How to Trick the Four-Leggeds showing Wisakedjak as a naked man wearing purple, high-heeled boots.[2]

In the 1991 movie Clearcut, Wiisagejaak is referred to as "the Deceiver" by a First Nations elder named Wilf, portrayed by Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman (Dakota). A man who appears from the lake, portrayed by Graham Greene (Oneida), may be Wiisagejaak himself.[3]

Wisakedjak is a character in the book American Gods by Neil Gaiman, where he is frequently referred to as "Whiskey Jack" (a corruption of this figure's traditional name). In the book, he appears as an old Native man, who lives in a mobile home, somewhere near a Lakota reservation in the badlands with Johnny Appleseed.[4]

gollark: Also, I could never work out how to supply reasonable quantities of oxygen to space stations.
gollark: Anyway, AR is too multiblocky, the vast amount of planets aren't very interesting, I don't actually care about designing a custom rocket, and having to research planets or something is annoying.
gollark: So, anyway, would you "host" this "modpack" or an approximation thereof? Heavpoot's server is bad and laggy (some offense).
gollark: Anyway, "heav"poot, having to restart the game whenever I die is not optimal.
gollark: I mean, Galacticraft has the same... space things?

See also

References
  1. Kiss of the Fur Queen review at Quill & Quire, September 1998.
  2. Weesageechak Teaches Hermes How to Trick the Four-Leggeds at kentmonkman.com
  3. Clearcut (1991) Quotes at IMDb
  4. American Gods list of Gods
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