I'm Ojibway / Cree in Ontario just on the other side of the Great Lakes from all this. And the language and story telling is very familiar. I remember hearing this story from other Native groups Minnesota before and they always loved it because it completely turns the whole Paul Bunyan legend on its head. The language is related to mine because the place name 'Bemidji' means 'a lake with crossing waters' or something like that ... it's implying that its a location where areas of water can be crossed. It's familiar to me to because in my language Bemichi means portaging across or to waterways.
And when it comes to Nanaboozhoo - The Greatest Ojibwe who ever lived .... we call him Nanabush in our part of the country. He's a great character because he is everything ... powerful, strong, brilliant, intelligent while also feeble, humble, dumb and fallible.
Definitely a great Ojibwe .... or Oochiboo as we call ourselves ... for slapping Bunyan silly with a fish!