Kakabeka Falls
Watercolour and crayon
©2017 Charlene Brown
Kakabeka Falls are on the TransCanada Highway
30 km west of Thunder Bay. At 40 meters, it is the second highest waterfall in
Ontario. (The much better-known Niagara
is only 11 meters higher.)
Not only is it a very pretty waterfall, Kakabeka
comes with a great story… An Ojibwe
Chief instructed his daughter, Princess Green Mantle, to devise a plan to
protect her people from an imminent Sioux invasion. She entered the Sioux camp
along the Kaministiquia River and, pretending to be lost, bargained with them to
spare her life if she would guide them to her father’s camp. Placed in the bow
of the lead canoe, she instead led the warriors and herself over the falls to
their deaths. The legend claims that one can see Green Mantle when looking into
the mist of Kakabeka Falls, a monument to the princess who gave her life to
save her people…
If I’d remembered that story when I was painting this
I would have included her in the picture.
