Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/142

 could they

get. And then along comes ' Coyote ' and found the poor Indians in this bad fix, and their condition moved him to do something for the poor people. Coyote would kill Wish-poosh ; but as other gods had tried to destroy him Coyote knew he had a big job on hand, and so he armed himself for the dangerous battle. He procured a great spear with a long strong handle, and bound it to his wrist with strong cords of Indian flax, and thus armed he went down to the lake and finding old Wishpoosh drove the spear into his body. The wounded and maddened water god plunged into the lake and down to the bottom; and the cord of the spear handle being fast to Coyote 's wrist he was dragged down to the bottom of the lake and dragged around by the infuriated monster until the lake was churned up like foam upon the ocean ; and from the lake Wishpoosh whisked Coyote away to the mountain side, and in the awful battle the two gods tore a hole through the moun- tains making the Stampede pass where the railroad now goes through ; and from the great gap in the mountain the fighting monsters rushed down into the sea that covered the Yakima valley, and turning about rushed over towards the Co- lumbia river making a channel for the White Salmon river to run down from Mt. Adams. And still the mighty beaver god dragged poor Coyote along who was now getting the worst of the battle. Coyote grabbed the trees as Wishpoosh dragged him along and the trees were pulled up like stubble; he clawed at the rocks and they tumbled down upon him. Nothing could stay the mighty power of Wishpoosh. Exhausted and more dead than alive Coyote finally found himself in the breakers of the ocean at the mouth of the Columbia river — and — and — Wishpoosh was dead. Finally dragging himself to shore, and the dead body of Wishpoosh with him. Coyote wiped the water from his face and eyes and decided to cut up the beaver god 's body and make it into different tribes of Indians. And proceeding to do so he cut out the belly and of it made the Chinook Indians, say- ing as he did so 'you shall always be short and fat and have great bellies.' Of the legs he made the Cayuses, saying 'you shall be fieet of foot and have strong limbs.' Of the head and brains he made the Nez Perces, saying 'you shall be men of wisdom and strong in battle. ' Of the ribs he made the Yakimas, saying, 'you shall be the protectors of the poor Indians.' Of the remainder of the body of Wishpoosh — some scraps, blood and entrails, he made the Snake In- dians, saying 'you shall always be the people of treachery, blood and violence.' "

The above is onlj^ one of twenty or more mythical stories which the Indians have handed down from father to son for unknown generations past. As well as the above story, which is "Speelyai, the Coyote," they have Speelyai and his wonderful dog, Amash the Owl, the Legend of the Lick, The Rabbit and the Sun, the Frog and the Moon, the Origin of Fire, Wawa the Mosquito, Castiltah the Crawfish, Wak-a-Poosh the Rattlesnake, the Tumwater Stone God, Coyote's Ride to the Star, how the Coyote and the Eagle bring the dead back from the Spirit Land, and the Island of the Dead.

Now here is a real ti-ue Indian story which the author of this book vouches for himself. Four years ago as Mr. Maximilian Tuerck, who has a fruit farm on Cook's Addition near the town of White Salmon in the state of Washington, was driving home from town he had to pass along a road running through a for- est for half a mile. As he drove along suddenly a coyote — the sneaking, chicken- stealing, lamb-killing, little gray wolf of eastern Oregon — came out of the brush and trotted alongside the team for a quarter of a mile. Mr. Tuerck had nothing