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TRIAL HISTORY & CULTURE
THE CLACKAMAS TRIBES
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Coyote came to that place (around Oregon City) and
found the people there very hungry. The river was full
of salmon, but they had no way to spear them in the
deep water. Coyote decided he would build a big
waterfall, so that the salmon would come to the surface
for spearing. Then he would build a fish trap there too.
First he tried at the mouth of Pudding River, but it was
no good, and all he made was the gravel-bar there. So
he went on down the river to Rock Island, and it was
better, but after making die rapids there he gave up
again and went farther down still. Where the Willam
ette Falls are now he found just the right place, and he
made the Falls high and wide. All the Indians came and
began to fish.
Now Coyote made his magic fish trap. He made it so it
would speak and say Noseepsk! when it was full.
Because he was pretty hungry, Coyote decided to try to
first himself. He set the trap by the Falls, and then ran
back up the shore to prepare to make a cooking-fire.
But he had only begun when the trap called out,
"Noseepsk!" He hurried back; indeed the trap was full
of salmon. Running back with them, he started his fire
again, but again the fish trap cried "Noseepsk!
Noseepsk!" He went again and found the trap full of
salmon. Again he ran to the shore with them; again he
had hardly gotten to his fire when the trap called out,
"Noseepsk! Noseepsk!" It happened again, and again;
the fifth time Coyote became angry and said to the trap,
"What, can't you wait with your fish-catching until I've
built a fire?" The trap was very offended by Coyote's
impatience, and stopped working right then. So after
that the people had to spear their salmon as best they
could.
SKOOKUM
On the East side of the Falls at about the site of Oregon
City, there was another large fishing village. Its chief was
a great man - but another skookum came out of the
mountains to the east and killed the chief and his whole
village, except for the chiefs wife and their unborn son.
After the son's birth, the woman, wanting him to be
strong, took him to all the streams and lakes with spirit
powers, and bathed him in each one. This made him
very strong, and he grew up very fast. When the boy
returned to the village beside the Falls and entered his
father's deserted lodge, he began to ask his mother
about the articles he saw there. She said, "This is the
spear with which your father used to catch the salmon;
and this is the axe with which he used to kill his enemies
or chop wood; and this is the bow with which he used to
shoot arrows."
The boy took the axe and went out into the woods.
Almost immediately he was met by the skookum.
Driving his axe into a gnarly log so as to make a big
crack in it, the boy said to the monster, "If you're so
strong, hold this crack open for me while I take another ,
cut." When the stupid skookum put his fingers in the
crack, the boy pulled his axe, and the monster was
caught fast. So the boy killed him easily.
Then the boy took his father's bow and shot an arrow
into the sky. At the same time he called out, "As this
arrow falls let those who died come to life," and so it
happened. Just as the arrow fell back to earth, the old
chief and all his people came up the river in their
canoes. They landed at the rocks and began fishing as if
nothing had happened. The boy was very happy and
went down to meet his father, who he had never seen
before, but the old chief asked him, "Who are you? I
am chief here!" and then hit him.
This made the boy very unhappy, and he climbed back
up to the rocks above the Falls, and cried so much that
his tears wore two big holes in the rock, which are there
today. He finally decided that he could not help his
people any more as a man, so he changed himself into a
fish. But the noise of the river by the Falls bothered
him, and he swam on up to the mouth of the Tualatin.
But he couldn't rest there either, so he went on up the