Legends

The Thunder Tamanois

He who gets the spirit of the Thunder may be almost immune to death by knife or spear wounds. Spul-kaedib when young got the tamano1is of Thunder. He had 17 knife wounds and survived them all. Once when down at Skabalko he and his brother got into an argument with some people which ended in a little battle. The brother got out of it unscathed but Spul-kaedib was badly cut up. His brother got him into a canoe and poled up the river. For several hours he poled and Spul-kaedib, who was lying in the bottom of the canoe, was … Read more

The Canoe Maker

On the Pilchuck lived and worked part of `he year the Canoe-maker. He did not make canoes alone. Handling the big logs took more than one man. But he had a good eye for the best trees and for the shaping of the canoes. When a good tree had been selected, the fillers commenced their work. Their tools were chisel and hammer. Their best chisel was a tool about 8 or 10 inches long and one-half to two inches wide, made of bone or elkhorn, and called queahad. Striking the end of the handle with the hammer (skaat-scheed with long … Read more

Shla-Ahk, the Story Teller

Perhaps you would like to hear who first told the story about the fire war. It was Shla-ahk (the Otter). For a long time the people did not know just how they had gotten the first fire. Many stories were told mostly by S’beau, how he had gotten it for them. But they had a suspicion that Otter, the quiet and mysterious, knew. They asked him to tell. He put them off with excuses, but at last said. “If some one will cut my mouth open wider, I will tell.” So they took a sharp stone knife and cut Otter’s … Read more

The Fox and the Salmon

S’beau (The Fox) and Su-Adu (The Salmon) Spose you like to hear something about fish. Yes, Indian all over this whulge (Sound) country, he know much about fish. Some way this river people all over. S’Beau, hees best friend for Su-adu; he make bargain with salmon this way: He run up rivers and creeks all the time and look for place salmon can stay when he lay eggs. When salmon come up S’Beau he maybe see salmon run in bad place where he will get struck and die if water go down. S’Beau he run out and chase salmon and … Read more

Story of So-Obdi

So-Obdi (The Great Hunter) and Tu-Shwi-Whi, The Lesser Yes, this man So-obdi, he’s called that name by his mother maybe, when he’s little boy. She like to see him make big hunter. Maybe first he’s just good hunter (Tu-shwi-whi) like other Indian, and then sometime he make big hunt, kill Grizzly (Tep-taable). Then other Indian call him So-obdi. Well this boy all the time quick learn to shoot bow and arrow, throw spear, run and travel long time. He run with dogs, he run with man. He learn to jump quick, this way, that way. Maybe hee’s got to jump … Read more

Old Indian Camps

Here and there may yet be found traces of old Indian camps. On a little tour of investigation in 1910, the writer looked over three old camp sites. The most interesting and easiest to find was the one at Mrs. Leque’s place a short distance east of Stanwood. This camp must have been used for a long time. There was a mound covering at least half an acre, and at some points as much as five feet higher than the level of the adjoining land. It seemed to be built up entirely of clamshells, rocks, bones and refuse. Some of … Read more

The Creeks

First among the big creeks was Toli-Dachub (the Pilchuck). Here was game in abundance. The Staku-Hatchu (beaver marsh or lake) near the mouth, elk, deer and bear from the mouth to the headwaters. Next Klee-ekub, the Deer creek at Oso, the home of Kae-owah, a family of steelhead. Near the mouth of Deer creek was a permanent Indian camp. The families who lived there had another camp near Hazel. Then further up the river was Kal-ub (the Boulder) the long creek that comes all the way from Queest-Alb (Three Finger mountain)-up where Sweet-lai family lives. Further up the river was … Read more

Legend of Two Mountains

So-Bahli-Ahli, Ska-Duloas and Qua-Hae-Eths Those of you who have traveled the Arlington-Darrington road, and in clear weather have looked up at the long ridge of Mt. Higgins, have surely seen the long parallel gashes running slantwise from the top of the ridge down to the rockslides. They are best seen from near Fortson. You may have wondered how it happened. Well here is how: So-bahli-ahli (White Horse Mt.) was once a women. She had come from east of the mountains. Near where she settled lived a man, Qua-hae-eths. She liked him. very much, and he became her man, and they … Read more

The Whetstone

Down at Utsalady the Indians found a stone that was the very best for sharpening their cutting instruments. Axes, chisels, knives and scrapers of hard rock, bone and horn could be made very sharp if rubbed on this stone. Flat pieces of this stone were found all around the old Indian camps. Most of these were used up. At one time the rock where these stones were chipped off was as big as a big house. Now it is as low as low tide and has been that way a long time.

Saukwa Beault – Sauk Prairie Legend and History

Sauk Prairie Legend and History At one time Sauk Prairie was a big marshland and belonged to the Beavers. Indian tribes used to send out scouts to locate hunting, fishing and camping grounds. One of these scouts found what is now Sauk Prairie. In and around the marsh were many plants with edible roots, many kinds of berries, also much small game and birds. The scout had a vision of a great summer camp for his tribe. He wanted to secure the marsh for them and began dickering with the Beavers. ‘They agreed to part with it for some pieces … Read more

Traditions of the Caddo

The Caddo tales presented were collected during the years 1903-1905, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and form part of a systematic investigation of the religious system and ceremonial organization of the tribes of the Caddoan stock.

Walam Olum, Tribal Chronicle

Walam Olum. The sacred tribal chronicle of the Lenape or Delawares. The name signifies ‘painted tally’ or ‘red score,’ from walam, ‘painted,’ particularly ‘red painted,’ and olum,’ a score or tally.’ The Walam Olum was first published in 1836 in a work entitled “The American Nations,” by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, an erratic French scholar, who spent a number of years in this country, dying in Philadelphia in 1840. He asserted that it was a translation of a manuscript in the Delaware language, which was an interpretation of an ancient sacred metrical legend of the tribe, recorded in pictographs cut upon … Read more

Indian Legends of the Stillaguamish

Stoluckquamish

Indian Stories and Legends of the Stillaguamish: These little stories about animals, people and places have been told to me by people whose friendship I value highly. Several of them are now gone to the happy hunting grounds. It is about twenty years ago since the first ones were written down as notes in a scrapbook. Since then, the collection has been increasing steadily. Have told some of them to friends; they have encouraged me to publish, if possible, a few of the more interesting ones. The demand would of course be limited, and as it costs nearly as much to print a small number of books or pamphlets as more, the price will be higher than it should be. It would be the greatest pleasure to me if I could afford to have a couple hundred copies printed and give them away to people who might wish to have them. However, I make no excuse for this effort; I am sure a few people will appreciate it, regardless of poor grammar, and other faults.

Native American Origin Synopsis

Where such a race can be supposed to have had their origin, history may vainly inquire. It probably broke off from one of the primary stocks of the human race, before history had dipped her pen in ink, or lifted her graver on stone

An Ancient Shipwreck On The American Coasts

Iroquois tradition preserves the account of the wreck of a vessel, in the ante-Columbian era, on a part of the Southern Atlantic Coasts, occupied by one of the tribes of that ancient and leading stock of men namely, the Tuscaroras. This division of that confederacy then lived in the present area of North Carolina. The story is stated by Cusic, in his curious pamphlet of the historical traditions of the Six Nations, published at Lewiston, in Western New York, about 1825. Cusic had reflected much on the position of the Iroquois in our aboriginal history; and waited, it seems, for … Read more

Legends of the Iroquois

On long winter evening the Indian hunters gathered around their fireside, to listen to the historical traditions, legends of war and hunting, and fairy tales which had been handed down through their fathers and father’s fathers, with scarcely any variation for centuries, kindling the enthusiasm of the warrior and inspiring the little child some day to realize similar dreams, and hand his name down to posterity as the author of similar exploits. They have superstitious fears of relating fables in summer: not until after snow comes will they relate of snakes, lest they should creep into their beds, or of … Read more

Taounyawatha – Deity of the Forest

This was a part of the broad domain of the Iroquois Confederacy,   which extended, in general terms, from the Hudson to the Genesee, and from the north to the south boundary of this State. This confederacy was composed of the following nations, located in the following order from east to west, the Mohawk, (Ganeagaonos,) Its origin is buried in the obscurity of vague tradition and was unknown to civilized nations in 1750. on the river which bears their name, the Oneida, (Onayotekaonos) Onondaga, (Onundagaonos) Cayugas, (Gwengwehonos) and Seneca, (Nundawaonos) mostly adjacent to the lakes which bear their names. The traditions … Read more

Oye-Kar-Mani-Vim, The Track Maker

It was in the summer of 183-, that a large party of Chippeways visited Fort Snelling. There was peace between them and the Sioux. Their time was passed in feasting and carousing; their canoes together flew over the waters of the Mississippi. The young Sioux warriors found strange beauty in the oval faces of the Chippeway girls; and the Chippeways discovered (what was actually the case) that the women of the Dahcotahs were far more graceful than those of their own nation. But as the time of the departure of the Chippeways approached, many a Chippeway maiden wept when she … Read more

Wenona, The Virgin’s Feast

Never did the sun shine brighter than on a cold day in December, when the Indians at “Little Crow’s” village were preparing to go on a deer hunt. The Mississippi was frozen, and the girls of the village had the day before enjoyed one of their favorite amusements a ball-play on the ice. Those who owned the bright cloths and calicoes which were hung up before their eyes, as an incentive to win the game, were still rejoicing over their treasures; while the disappointed ones were looking sullen, and muttering of partiality being shown to this one because she was … Read more

Tah-We-Chu-Kin, The Wife

In February, 1837, a party of Dahcotahs (Warpetonian) fell in with Hole-in-the-Day, and his band. When Chippeways and Dahcotahs meet there is generally bloodshed; and, however highly Hole-in-the-Day may be esteemed as a warrior, it is certain that he showed great treachery towards the Dahcotahs on many occasions. Now they met for peaceable purposes. Hole-in-the-Day wished permission to hunt on the Dahcotah lands without danger from the tomahawk of his enemies. He proposed to pay them certain articles, which he should receive from the United States Government when he drew his annuities, as a return for the privilege he demanded. … Read more