Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/143

 with which he could attack the animal and so took notice of all his movements. Every few minutes the coyote would look up at the man apparently fearing nothing and making no effort to part company. As the woods was passed and the open field closed in the coyote left the highway and disappeared in the brush. Before Mr. Tuerck reached his home he met on the road, Joe Hunt, an Indian about seventy-five years of age, and the son of Timotsk, whose likeness appears on another page of this book. Stopping his team Mr. Tuerck related his strange experience with the coyote. Hunt immediately showed great anxiety and with much excitement said to Tuerck, who had in many cases shown him friendship, "That is bad news, very bad news, the coyote knows, he brings you bad news, Indian know the coyote no lie. Now you see some of your friend die, may be now, may be tomorrow—you see, sure you see." Mr. Tuerck could only smile at the simple minded faith of

but on reaching his home was shocked and overwhelmed by a telephone message from Portland announcing the sudden death of his mother a few hours previous.

But not all of the Indians believed in the grossness of the myths represented by the foregoing. Some of them had ideas of more refinement if not of progress. A few years ago Mr. Silas B. Smith, of Clatsop county, who was himself a half blood Indian, and an educated man—an attorney—prepared a statement of the beliefs of the Indians which he had gathered from Indians personally. Speaking generally of the Indians west of the Cascade mountains Mr. Smith said they were slave holders; but that their slaves were obtained from the tribes north of the Straits of Fuca, or from southern Oregon or northern California; and that there were no flatheads among the slaves. From this fact it is concluded that the flattening of the head was considered a mark of nobility—among the Willamette and coast Indians. Another interesting fact Mr. Smith gives is that the Indian men of the leading families always sought wives from tribes other than their own. And this shows that the Oregon Indian understood the danger of interbreeding with relatives, and in this respect they were more enlightened than the British aristocracy.

The Oregon Indians, says Mr. Smith, believed in one Supreme Being, the creator of all things, and they called him "E-cah-nie." They have subordinate gods, and the principal one is "Tal-i-pas." This divinity possessed some creative power, and he came among men to teach them ways of living, and in his travels he would assume the form of the coyote, hence his name (Tal-i-pas, pronounced by some tribes as "Tul-li-pas," being the name of the coyote). He taught the people the art of building canoes and of navigation, of making nets and seining for salmon, of building houses for their dwellings, and all the various customs and rites which they observed. On account of his creative qualities his character is sometimes blended in with the Supreme Being, and at such times, in referring to him, they award him the title of "E-cah-nie."

And. again, they have divinities presiding over certain special interests, such as the run of fish and the like. The heart of the salmon must never be given to a dog to be eaten, as on account of his base nature it would be an act of