Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

Franz Boas, Chinook Texts (Bureau of Ethnology, Government Printing Office, 1894).

Franz Boas, Cathlamet Texts (Ibid.).

James Teit, Traditions of the Lilloost Indians (Journal of American Folk-Lore, Vol. XXV).

Jeremiah Curtin, Myths of the Modocs (Little, Brown & Co.).

To these may be added, as of special value, the studies of Prof. Albert S. Gatchett among the Modocs, found under the title, "Oregonian Folk-Lore" in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, Vol. IV, 1891, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The other volumes of the Journal of American Folk-Lore from 1888 to 1913 contain valuable matter.

Doctor Boas found a treasury of information in an old Indian named Charlie Cultee, at Bay Center in Willapa Harbor, Wash., and from that source derived the material for the most scientific and uncolored study of Indian lore yet given to the public. These appear in the Chinook Texts of Doctor Boas. In this is a fine story of the first ship seen by the Clatsops. This is found also in H. S. Lyman's History of Oregon. In Professor Gatchett's book are found some of the finest fire myths and fish myths of the Northwest.

Following the groups of the explorers and the professional ethnologists, may come the larger body of miscellaneous collectors and writers, who, through local papers and magazines and published books, as well as personal narration, have rescued many quaint and curious gems of Indian mythology from oblivion and through various channels have imparted them to the slowly accumulating stock.

Those no longer living may properly appear first. Of comparatively recent students no longer living, Silas Smith of Astoria was of the best. His father was Solomon Smith of the Wyeth Expedition, while his mother was Celiast, daughter of the Clatsop chief Cobaiway. Through his Indian mother Mr. Smith obtained much interesting matter, much of which was preserved by H. S. Lyman in his history of Oregon, and in articles in the Oregonian, Historical Quarterly, and other publications. H. S. Lyman was also an original investigator, deriving his data mainly from Silas Smith and from a group of Indians who formerly lived at the mouth of the Nekanicum. These stories appear in his history of Oregon and in a group contained in the "Tallapus Stories," published in the Oregonian. Another intelligent and patient investigator was Rev. Myron Eells, who lived for many years on Hood's Canal. Many years ago the author heard from him legends from the Indians which he derived directly from the natives, such as the Thunder Bird, the Flood around Mount Tacoma (which he thought colored by the story of Noah in the Bible), and others. In the book by Mr. Eells, entitled "Ten Years' Missionary Work in Skokomish," he gives a valuable description of the "Tomanowas." In various numbers of the American Antiquarian Mr. Eells has valuable articles as follows: "The Religion of the Twana Indians," July, 1879; "Dokidatl, or the God of the Puget Sound Indians," November, 1884; "The Indians of Puget Sound," May, 1888, and March, 1890.

Prominent among the scholars and lecturers of Oregon is the great name of Thomas Condon, for a long time in the State University, and the earliest student in a large way of the geology of the Northwest. He was interested in Indian myths as in almost everything that had to do with man and nature. The legend of the "Bridge of the Gods," already given in this chapter, particularly appealed to him. One of the notable students of both the geology and anthropology of the Northwest was George Gibbs, who came to Oregon as a Government geologist in 1853. In his report on the Pacific Railroad in House of Representatives Documents of 1853-4, he gives the first published version, so far as we can discover, of the "Bridge of the Gods." He tells the story thus: "The Indians tell a characteristic tale of Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens to the effect that they were man and wife; that they finally quarreled and threw fire at one another, and that St. Helens was victor; since when Mount Hood has been afraid, while St. Helens, having a stout heart, still burned. In some versions this story is connected with the slide which formed the Cascades of the Columbia." Mr. Gibbs also gives some Yakima legends.

One of the most distinguished of all the literary pioneers of Old Oregon was Samuel A. Clark. In his "Pioneer Days in Oregon" are several interesting legends well told. In this we find the legend of the Nahalem, with Ona and Sandy and all their tribulations. We find here told also the story of the Bridge of the Gods, in which Hood and Adams are represented as the contending forces, having been originally the abutments of the Bridge of the Gods. But the most noted contribution of Mr. Clark to this legend was his poem called, "The Legend of the Mountains," referring to the fabled bridge, which appeared in Harper's Magazine of February, 1874. This represents Mount St. Helens as a goddess for whom Hood and Adams contended, hurling huge stones at each other and finally breaking down the bridge. The story of the bridge became the most noted of all native myths, being related to practically every traveller that made the steamboat trip down the Columbia.