The rare, wild Lady's Slipper Orchid is sometimes called the Moccasin Flower. An Ojibwe legend tells of a brave young woman who risked her life to save her people. One winter, a terrible disease struck her village. Many fell ill and died, including the medicine man. With all hope gone, the chief asked her husband, who was his messenger, to make an unprecedented winter trip to the next village for medicine. As he was preparing to leave, the messenger himself fell ill. His wife, fearing for his life, slipped unnoticed out into the cold and ran across the frozen drifts to the neighboring village. The next morning, the people of her village were startled to hear her voice calling to her husband from the forest. They ran out and found her lying in the snow, her feet frostbitten and bleeding, but with the medicine needed to save her husband and the other sick villagers in her pack. They carried her back to her lodge and wrapped her feet in warm, thick deer skins. She was honored by her people for her sacrifice and devotion, and upon her death her foot wrappings became little yellow orchids: the Lady's Slipper, or Moccasin Flower.