Week 11 Reading: Pacific Northwest American Indian Tales, Part A

The lodge I visited on Lake Quinault. Image on Wikimedia

For this week, I decided to read the Pacific Northwest American Indian stories unit. I chose this unit as my father lived in the Pacific Northwest until recently, and I visited the area three times. On one trip, we drove all the way around Olympic National Park. Lots of places, such as Quinault Lake, are rich in Native American history. Anywhere I went in Oregon and Washington was so beautiful. There are mountains, rivers, coasts, trees, creeks, waterfalls, etc. everywhere. Reading these stories, it was easy to picture the scenery that they portrayed.

A lot of the tales in this unit were creation stories as told from various tribes. Perhaps the most interesting was the Atsugewi tale of a Silver-Fox and a Coyote. The relationship between these animals was interesting, and I would like to know more about how it came about. In this creation story, the Silver-Fox serves as the Creator. He and the Coyote live in the sky above the Earth, and the Earth at this time is only sea. The Fox creates a hole in the sky and climbs down to Earth and creates a small island. The Coyote later joins as the Fox facilitates creating everything on the planet. The Coyote keeps asking questions which the Fox is disinclined to answer, and the relationship between the two almost resembles a parent and an ornery child.

In the Klamath creation tale, Kemush is the creator god. He plants the trees and places the animals in their appropriate habitats. However, after he creates the world, it is clear that he is unwise in many ways, and this is a little amusing. When he wants to create a good coat because he is cold, he sees some lynxes and tries to throw rocks at them in order to kill them. He misses each time, but he does not try any other way to kill the lynxes. Eventually, they all run off and he is left cold. Then, he comes across an antelope which he thinks would make a good coat, but he does not keep his eye on it, and it runs off.

Another tale from this unit that I liked a lot was the Nez Perce story in which a beaver steals fire from Pine Trees. In the beginning, the Pine Trees were the only creatures who had the ability to create fire. Even through harsh winters, they would not share their fire. After a particularly cold winter in which the animals almost froze, the animals gathered together and decided to steal the fire from the Pines. The beaver is the one who hides and steals a live coal. The trees immediately notice and run after him, but the beaver is too quick and the trees grow weary faster than he does. The thing that I thought was interesting about this story is that the beaver's path and where the trees stopped following him is the origin story of why the land and river are today laid like they are. Since many pines stopped following the beaver at the particular river’s edge, there are today thick clumps of pines that are difficult for man to walk through in that area. Since the beaver ran sometimes in a straight line and sometimes in a zigzag, the course of the river reflects this today.

If you would like to read these tales, click here: link.

Judson, Katharine Berry. Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest. 1910.