Week 11 Reading Notes: Pacific Northwest, Part A
Here are my notes for my reading of myths from the Pacific Northwest Native American tribes.
1: How Silver Fox Created the World
-silver fox and coyote live in the sky; silver fox wants to make things, but coyote doesn't; one day, silver fox sends coyote off to get wood, and silver fox makes a hole in the sky and climbs down to an island; silver fox brings coyote down to the island; each day silver fox adds something to the island and eventually makes the earth
2: Three Coyote Stories
-creation of mankind: silver fox whittled down service-berry sticks and turned them into people; coyote made some people too, and started to chase them, but when he caught them they turned to shavings
-how coyote got his cunning: Old Man Above Chareya made men and animals and told men to decide the rank of the animals; the man decided to give each animal a bow, and the length of the bow would decide rank; coyote wants to get the longest bow, so he stays up all night, but ends up falling asleep in the morning and missing the bows being given out, so when he wakes up he gets the shortest one; he complains to Chareya, so Chareya makes him the most cunning
-how coyote was killed: coyote sleeps on a mountaintop and sees the stars every night; coyote asks the stars to take him with them when they go back to the sky; the stars usually refuse, but one night agree; coyote grabs a hold of the star as it rises, but he gets so cold higher up that he slips and falls back to earth, dying
3: How Kemush Created the World
-Kemush, Old Man of the Ancients, made the world (called Kaila); he made everything about the world and gave them all names; Kemush was very tired afterwards so he slept; one night, Kemush and his daughter go to the Place of the Dark and dance with the spirits; this made the spirits become dry bone, so Kemush took the bones back to the edge of the world and threw two in each direction; this created people
-the robe of Kemush: one day, Kemush comes upon 5 lynxes in a tree and decides to kill them to make a robe out of their fur; they all get away, so Kemush keeps walking; he comes upon an antelope and decides to skin it for a new robe, so he lays his old rabbit-skin robe on it and goes to get a knife; when he comes back, the antelope has run off with his rabbit-skin robe
4: How Old Man Above Created the World
-Chareya makes a hole in the sky with a rock and pushes ice and snow through it to earth below to make a mountain; he climbs down to earth and plants trees in the snow, makes birds from leaves, and makes animals from sticks; he turns a pyramid of ice into a teepee with people in it and he lived there for a long time until white people came
5: How Beaver Stole Fire
-when there were no people in the world, animals and trees used to talk; pine trees had the secret of fire but they wouldn't tell anyone; one winter, all the animals gather and talk about how to take the secret of fire from the pine trees; the trees have their own conference, with a large fire; beaver sneaks into the conference and steals a hot coal; the trees chase him along the river and into the forest; along the way, beaver gives a piece of the coal to all the different trees (so humans can use them to light fires)
6: How Dog Stole Fire
-Pine-Marten stole the wives of Hawk-Man, so Hawk-Man began angrily dancing until it started raining; people were afraid that it would rain so much they would drown or it would flood, so they send a man to kill Hawk-Man; after Hawk-Man died, people found that fires couldn't start all over the world; they send an owl to look for fire all over the world, but he only found smoke coming from a sweat house
-all the animals go to the sweat house to get some fire; each of the animals try to take some fire, but everyone's gets put out except for dog's
7: The Story of Ashish
-Ashish, silver fox and Kemush have multiple competitions to see who is better at different things; Ashish wins at everything; Kemush gets jealous and plots against Ashish; he takes Ashish on a hunting trip for eagles and has him climb a really tall tree; while Ashish is doing that, Kemush disguises himself as Ashish and goes back to his house; Ashish's wives are not fooled
-everyone looks for Ashish; they find him near death at the top of the tree; they send some birds with a basket to put him in and bring him safely back down to the ground
8: Chinook Wind
-the 5 Chinook brothers cause the warm wind to blow, and the 5 Walla Walla brothers cause the cold wind to blow; the two families are always fighting; one day, the Walla Walla brothers challenge the Chinook brothers to a wrestling match, and whoever falls will die; they agree
-coyote goes to the grandparents of the Chinooks and tells them to put oil on the ground so the Walla Walla's will fall; he also goes to the Walla Walla's and tells them to put ice on the ground so the Chinooks will fall; there was more ice on the ground than oil during the match, so the Chinook brothers fall and die
-one of the Chinook brothers had a son, who grew up and wanted revenge; he takes care of his grandparents and keeps the Walla Walla brothers from hurting them; one day, the Walla Walla brothers challenge him to the same wrestling match as the Chinook brothers; coyote tells the grandparents the same thing, but this time there was more oil on the ground, so the Walla Walla brothers fall and die
9: As-Ai-Yahal
-As-Ai-Yahal, a god, lives in the mountains; he goes to Tillamook bay and sees women digging up roots; he tells them to go to Clatsop instead, so they do; he turns salmon into flounder; he finds people freezing, so he goes to the house of the East Wind and convinces him to not be so cold
10: The First Totem Pole
-Wakiash was a chief who never danced; one day, Wakiash goes to the mountains and meets a raven, who tells him to ride on his back so the raven can show him the world; one day, they come across a house with a totem pole in front of it; raven stops so Wakiash can steal the totem pole; Wakiash also takes the house, the masks of the people there and their dance; he takes all of them home
11: Three Raven Stories
-the origin of daylight: the new earth was dark and cold; Gull keeps light in a box and guards it; his cousin, raven, wished for daylight, so he tricks gull into releasing light from the box
-owl and raven: owl and raven were close friends; one day, owl is helping raven make a white dress, but raven won't stay still while owl tries to pin it; this causes owl to spill a blubber lamp all over the dress, making raven turn black
-the spell of the laughing raven: all the animals and people were gathered at the dance place; gray wolf lays down to sleep in the forest, and old grizzly comes along and steals his moccasins; grey wolf wakes up and gets angry, killing old grizzly; this makes people start fighting, and makes old raven laugh
12: Woodrat and Rabbits
-a woodrat lives near 5 rabbits in the woods; woodrat goes to rabbit 1 and tells him they should have a fight; they argue for a bit, then woodrat catches rabbit 1 in a net and kills him; woodrat goes to rabbit 2 and asks him to fight; they fight; woodrat goes to rabbit 3 and starts a fight with him too; this goes on until all the rabbits are dead, and woodrat and his mother roast them over a fire; the fire eventually gets too large, killing woodrat and his mother
13: Why There are no Snakes on Takhoma
-chief Tyhee Sahale becomes angry with the people so he orders a medicine man to take his bow and arrow and shoot into the cloud over Takhoma; the medicine man does this until there is a chain of arrows that reach the earth; the medicine man, his family, and the good animals climb up the chain to Takhoma; the medicine man sees the bad animals, like snakes, climbing the chain too so he breaks it, making them fall back to the ground
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, Especially of Washington and Oregon," by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source: Untextbook.
1: How Silver Fox Created the World
-silver fox and coyote live in the sky; silver fox wants to make things, but coyote doesn't; one day, silver fox sends coyote off to get wood, and silver fox makes a hole in the sky and climbs down to an island; silver fox brings coyote down to the island; each day silver fox adds something to the island and eventually makes the earth
2: Three Coyote Stories
-creation of mankind: silver fox whittled down service-berry sticks and turned them into people; coyote made some people too, and started to chase them, but when he caught them they turned to shavings
-how coyote got his cunning: Old Man Above Chareya made men and animals and told men to decide the rank of the animals; the man decided to give each animal a bow, and the length of the bow would decide rank; coyote wants to get the longest bow, so he stays up all night, but ends up falling asleep in the morning and missing the bows being given out, so when he wakes up he gets the shortest one; he complains to Chareya, so Chareya makes him the most cunning
-how coyote was killed: coyote sleeps on a mountaintop and sees the stars every night; coyote asks the stars to take him with them when they go back to the sky; the stars usually refuse, but one night agree; coyote grabs a hold of the star as it rises, but he gets so cold higher up that he slips and falls back to earth, dying
3: How Kemush Created the World
-Kemush, Old Man of the Ancients, made the world (called Kaila); he made everything about the world and gave them all names; Kemush was very tired afterwards so he slept; one night, Kemush and his daughter go to the Place of the Dark and dance with the spirits; this made the spirits become dry bone, so Kemush took the bones back to the edge of the world and threw two in each direction; this created people
-the robe of Kemush: one day, Kemush comes upon 5 lynxes in a tree and decides to kill them to make a robe out of their fur; they all get away, so Kemush keeps walking; he comes upon an antelope and decides to skin it for a new robe, so he lays his old rabbit-skin robe on it and goes to get a knife; when he comes back, the antelope has run off with his rabbit-skin robe
4: How Old Man Above Created the World
-Chareya makes a hole in the sky with a rock and pushes ice and snow through it to earth below to make a mountain; he climbs down to earth and plants trees in the snow, makes birds from leaves, and makes animals from sticks; he turns a pyramid of ice into a teepee with people in it and he lived there for a long time until white people came
5: How Beaver Stole Fire
-when there were no people in the world, animals and trees used to talk; pine trees had the secret of fire but they wouldn't tell anyone; one winter, all the animals gather and talk about how to take the secret of fire from the pine trees; the trees have their own conference, with a large fire; beaver sneaks into the conference and steals a hot coal; the trees chase him along the river and into the forest; along the way, beaver gives a piece of the coal to all the different trees (so humans can use them to light fires)
6: How Dog Stole Fire
-Pine-Marten stole the wives of Hawk-Man, so Hawk-Man began angrily dancing until it started raining; people were afraid that it would rain so much they would drown or it would flood, so they send a man to kill Hawk-Man; after Hawk-Man died, people found that fires couldn't start all over the world; they send an owl to look for fire all over the world, but he only found smoke coming from a sweat house
-all the animals go to the sweat house to get some fire; each of the animals try to take some fire, but everyone's gets put out except for dog's
7: The Story of Ashish
-Ashish, silver fox and Kemush have multiple competitions to see who is better at different things; Ashish wins at everything; Kemush gets jealous and plots against Ashish; he takes Ashish on a hunting trip for eagles and has him climb a really tall tree; while Ashish is doing that, Kemush disguises himself as Ashish and goes back to his house; Ashish's wives are not fooled
-everyone looks for Ashish; they find him near death at the top of the tree; they send some birds with a basket to put him in and bring him safely back down to the ground
8: Chinook Wind
-the 5 Chinook brothers cause the warm wind to blow, and the 5 Walla Walla brothers cause the cold wind to blow; the two families are always fighting; one day, the Walla Walla brothers challenge the Chinook brothers to a wrestling match, and whoever falls will die; they agree
-coyote goes to the grandparents of the Chinooks and tells them to put oil on the ground so the Walla Walla's will fall; he also goes to the Walla Walla's and tells them to put ice on the ground so the Chinooks will fall; there was more ice on the ground than oil during the match, so the Chinook brothers fall and die
-one of the Chinook brothers had a son, who grew up and wanted revenge; he takes care of his grandparents and keeps the Walla Walla brothers from hurting them; one day, the Walla Walla brothers challenge him to the same wrestling match as the Chinook brothers; coyote tells the grandparents the same thing, but this time there was more oil on the ground, so the Walla Walla brothers fall and die
9: As-Ai-Yahal
-As-Ai-Yahal, a god, lives in the mountains; he goes to Tillamook bay and sees women digging up roots; he tells them to go to Clatsop instead, so they do; he turns salmon into flounder; he finds people freezing, so he goes to the house of the East Wind and convinces him to not be so cold
10: The First Totem Pole
-Wakiash was a chief who never danced; one day, Wakiash goes to the mountains and meets a raven, who tells him to ride on his back so the raven can show him the world; one day, they come across a house with a totem pole in front of it; raven stops so Wakiash can steal the totem pole; Wakiash also takes the house, the masks of the people there and their dance; he takes all of them home
11: Three Raven Stories
-the origin of daylight: the new earth was dark and cold; Gull keeps light in a box and guards it; his cousin, raven, wished for daylight, so he tricks gull into releasing light from the box
-owl and raven: owl and raven were close friends; one day, owl is helping raven make a white dress, but raven won't stay still while owl tries to pin it; this causes owl to spill a blubber lamp all over the dress, making raven turn black
-the spell of the laughing raven: all the animals and people were gathered at the dance place; gray wolf lays down to sleep in the forest, and old grizzly comes along and steals his moccasins; grey wolf wakes up and gets angry, killing old grizzly; this makes people start fighting, and makes old raven laugh
12: Woodrat and Rabbits
-a woodrat lives near 5 rabbits in the woods; woodrat goes to rabbit 1 and tells him they should have a fight; they argue for a bit, then woodrat catches rabbit 1 in a net and kills him; woodrat goes to rabbit 2 and asks him to fight; they fight; woodrat goes to rabbit 3 and starts a fight with him too; this goes on until all the rabbits are dead, and woodrat and his mother roast them over a fire; the fire eventually gets too large, killing woodrat and his mother
13: Why There are no Snakes on Takhoma
-chief Tyhee Sahale becomes angry with the people so he orders a medicine man to take his bow and arrow and shoot into the cloud over Takhoma; the medicine man does this until there is a chain of arrows that reach the earth; the medicine man, his family, and the good animals climb up the chain to Takhoma; the medicine man sees the bad animals, like snakes, climbing the chain too so he breaks it, making them fall back to the ground
Coyote. Source: Untextbook.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, Especially of Washington and Oregon," by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source: Untextbook.
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