In the Beginning of the Nisqually World
(Puget Sound, Northwest Coast)
Long, long ago, som of the Puget Sound Indians
used to say, people on the earth became so numerouse that they
ate all the fish and game. Then they began to eat each other.
Soon they became worse than the wild animals had been. They
became so very wicked that Dokibatl, the Changer, sent a flood
upon the earth. All living things were destroyed except one
woman and one dog. They fled to the top of Tacobud and stayed
there until the flood left the earth.
From the woman and the dog were born the next
race of people. They walked on four legs and lived in holes in
the ground. They ate fern roots and camas bulbs, which they dug
with their fingers because they had no tools. Having no fire and
no clothing, they suffered from both the heat and the cold.
Their troubles were made worse when a giant bear
came up from the south. The bear was huge and strong and also
had special powers. With his eyes he cast a spell upon whatever
creature he wanted to eat. Then that creature was unable to
move, and the bear ate him. The people had no weapons. So the
bear was about to eat all of them.
At last the Changer sent a Spirit Man over the
mountains from the east. His face was like the sun. His voice
was like the voice of Thunderbird. He came armed with bow,
arrows, and spear. And he had great powers.
"Why do you weep?" he asked the people.
"We weep because of the bear,' they answered.
"The beast is about to destroy us. None of us can escape from
him."
The Spirit Man did not promise to help them, but
he did show them how to walk on two feet. And he told them that
there were two powerful spirits. "One of them is good; the other
is evil. The Good Spirit sent me to you."
Then he returned to the mountains to talk with
the Good Spirit, the Changer. When the Spirit Man came to the
people a second time, he brought many strange gifts and stayed
for many moons.
First he called all the people together for a
big potlatch, the first potlatch of all the Indians. He told
them that a potlatch is a big feast and gift-giving celebration.
To the young men, the Spirit Man gave bows, arrows, and spears,
and he taught all the young men how to use them.. To the old
men, he gave canoes. He showed them how to make canoes from
cedar trees, how to make fishing spears and nets, and how to
fish from the canoes.
The Spirit Man taught the girls how to make
skirts from the inner bark of the cedar tree, how to paint their
faces and oil their hair so they were more beautiful, and how to
sing. He showed the older women how to dig camas roots with the
sticks he brought them, and how to make baskets out of cedar
bark and seaweed. He showed them how to make fire by rubbing two
sticks together, how to cook, how to carry burdens by strapping
them across the head. "You will serve man and be useful to him
in these ways," the Spirit Man told the women. "He will be your
master."
Then the Spirit Man filled himself with strong
powers, for his next task was to kill the giant bear. First he
put seven arrows into his bag. He called together the men of the
tribe, and for one whole sun the group chanted over the arrows
to make them strong with spirit power.
Then the Spirit Man took one arrow and pushed it
into the ground in the center of the plain west of Tacobud.
After walking half a day toward the lodge of the great bear, he
pushed a second arrow into the ground. He walked for another
half day toward the bear's den and pushed a third arrow into the
ground. Thus he kept on until he had placed six arrows erect and
in a straight line. With the seventh arrow in his hand, the
Spirit Man went up to the bear. The beast tried to cast a spell
from his eyes, but the Spirit Man's spirit powers were so strong
that the bear could have no effect on him. He shot the seventh
arrow into the beast and then ran back to the sixth arrow. The
bear followed him. He shot the sixth arrow and then ran back to
the fifth. The bear followed him.
They kept running until they reached the first
arrow. The Spirit Man shot the first arrow into the heart of the
beast adn killed him. There the great bear died, in the middle
of the Nisqually plain.
All the people were glad when they gathered
together near the dead beast that had frightened them for so
long. They removed the skin and divided it equally among the
different branches of the tribe. The bear was so huge that the
skin of one ear covered the whole of Mound Prairie.
The last thing the Spirit Man did for the people
on this journey to their land was to make a large building with
just one opening. In this big house he placed all the diseases
and evil deeds known to the world since then. Then he called a
certain family to him and made them guardians of the building.
What was in the house he told only to the head of the family.
"You and your children and grandchildren will
take care of this house forever," the Spirit Man said. "Remember
that the door must never be opened. And remember that only the
head man of the family is ever to know what is in the building."
After many years, the only members of the family
left were an old man and his wife and daughter. One day, when
her father and mother went away from the house, the daughter saw
her chance to peek into the Spirit Man's house. She had long
wanted to see what was behind that door.
So she undid the fastenings and pushed back the
door a little distance. Out rushed all the creatures of the
house--all the diseases and evil deeds that have been in the
world ever since.
The Changer was so angry with the daughter that
he created the demon Seatco. Seatco's home is among the rocks in
the distant mountains. He sleeps by day. At night he flies over
the earth to seize any woman found away from her home..
"The Story-Telling Stone" by Susan Feldmann
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