The Mount St. Helen's Story
This story comes from the Nisqually,
(Pacific Northwest,
as if you didn't already know!)
Loo-Wit, The Fire-Keeper
When the world was young, the
Creator gave everyone
all that was needed to be happy. The weather was always
pleasant. There was
food for everyone and room for all
the people. Despite this, though, two brothers began to
quarrel
over the land. Each wanted to control it. It
reached the point where each brother gathered together
a group of men to support his claim. Soon it appeared
there would be war.
The Creator saw this
and was not pleased. He waited
until the two brothers were asleep one night and then
carried them
to a new country. There a beautiful river
flowed through and tall mountains rose into the clouds.
He woke them just as the sun rose and they looked out
from the mountaintop to the land below. They
saw what a
good place it was. It made their hearts good.
"Now," the Creator said, "this will be
your land."
Then he gave each of the brothers a bow and a single
arrow. "Shoot your arrow into
the air," the Creator said.
"Where your arrow falls will be the land of you and your
people, and
you shall be a great chief there."
The brothers did as they were told. The older brother
shot his
arrow. It arched over the river and landed to
the south in the valley of the Willamette River. There
is where he and his people went, and they became the
Multnomahs. The younger brother shot his arrow.
It flew
to the north of the great river. He and his people went
there and became the Klickitats.
Then the Creator made a great stone bridge across the
river. "This bridge," the Creator said, "is
a sign of
Peace. You and your peoples can visit each other by
crossing over this bridge. As long
as you remain at
peace, as long as your hearts are good, this bridge will
stand."
For many
seasons the two peoples remained at peace. They
passed freely back and forth across the great stone
bridge. One day, though, the people to the north looked
south toward the Willamette and said, "Their
lands are
better than ours." One day, though, the people to the
south looked north toward the Klickitat
and said, "Their
lands are more beautiful than ours." Then, once again,
the people began to quarrel.
The Creator saw this and was not pleased. The people
were becoming greedy again. Their hearts were
becoming
bad. The Creator darkened the skies and took fire away.
Now the people grew cold. The
rains of autumn began and
the people suffered greatly.
"Give us back fire," they begged. "We wish
to live again
with each other in peace." Their prayers reached the
Creator's heart. There was only
one place on Earth where
fire still remained. An old woman named Loo-Wit had
stayed out of the
quarreling and was not greedy. It was
in her lodge only that fire still burned. So the Creator
went
to Loo-Wit.
"If you will share your fire with all the people," The
Creator said, "I will give you
whatever you wish. Tell
me what you want."
"I want to be young and beautiful," Loo-Wit said.
"That
is the way it will be," said the Creator. "Now take
your fire to the Great Stone Bridge above the
river. Let
all the people come to you and get fire. You must keep
the fire burning there to remind
people that their hearts
must stay good."
The next morning, the skies grew clear and the people
saw the sun rise for the first time in many days. The sun
shone on the Great Stone Bridge and there
the people saw
a young woman as beautiful as the sunshine itself. Before
her, there on the bridge,
burned a fire. The people came
to the fire and made up their quarrels. Loo-Wit gave each
of them
fire. Now their homes again became warm and peace
was everywhere.
One day, though, the chief
of the people to the north
came to Loo-Wit's fire. He saw how beautiful she was and
wanted her
to be his wife. At the same time, the chief of
the people to the south also saw Loo-Wit's beauty.
He,
too, wanted to marry her. Loo-Wit could not decide which
of the two she liked better. Then
the chiefs began to
quarrel. Their peoples took up the quarrel and fighting
began.
When The
Creator saw the fighting he became angry. He
broke down the Great Stone Bridge. He took each of the
two chiefs and changed them into mountains. The chief of
the Klickitat became the mountain we now
know as Mount
Adams. The chief of the Multnomahs became the mountain we
now know as Mount Hood.
Even as mountains they continued
to quarrel, throwing flames and stones at each other. In
some
places, the stones they threw almost blocked the
river between them. That is why the Columbia River
is so
narrow in the place called the Dalles today.
Loo-Wit was heartbroken over the pain caused
by her
beauty. She no longer wanted to be a beautiful young
woman. She could no longer find peace
as a human being.
The Creator took pity on her and changed her into a
mountain also, the most beautiful
of the mountains. She
was placed so that she stood between Mount Adams and
Mount Hood and she was
allowed to keep the fire within
herself which she had once shared on the Great Stone
Bridge. eventually
she became known as Mount St. Helens
and she slept peacefully.
Though she was asleep, Loo-Wit
was still aware, the
people said. The Creator had placed her between the two
quarreling mountains
to keep the peace, and it was
intended that humans, too, should look at her beauty and
remember
to keep their hearts good, to share the land and
treat it well. If we human beings do not treat the
land
with respect, the people said, Loo-Wit will wake up and
let us know how unhappy she and the
Creator have become
again. So they said long before the day in the 1980s
when Mount St. Helen woke
again.
|
