Post by blackcrowheart on Sept 20, 2007 14:14:13 GMT -5
En-am-tues - The Wishing Stone - Okanogan
There were three brothers, all great warriors. They lived in Okanogan
country. Choo'-pahk - Sticking - was the oldest; the second brother was
Scra'-kan - Copper - and the youngest was Nak-ka'-tuya-Cut-up.
Among the Kalispel people lived a maiden named Scoo'-mdt-Virgin. Her father
was chief of the Kalispels.
One sun Scoo'-malt filled a basket with camas roots and started for the
Okanogan country. She hoped to please the handsome, coppery Scra'-kan and
become his wife. Upon reaching the summit of the range overlooking the
Okanogan Valley from the east, she stopped to make herself beautiful. She
combed and braided her long black hair and painted her face with red earth
paint. In their dreams the three brothers saw Scoo'-malt coming, and they
went to meet her. Each asked her to marry him, and then the younger brothers
fought. Nak-ka'-fuya slashed the shoulders off Scra'-kan,
while Scra'-kan knocked.
Nak-ka'-fuya down and kicked him into a long heap, flat on the ground.
Coyote came along as the brothers were fighting, and he laughed at seeing
them fighting so hard over the Kalispel maiden. He thought it was a good
joke, but his glee angered the girl, and she spoke sharply to him. Her
words, in turn, angered Coyote. He would show the maiden that she could not
talk that way to him. With the help of his great medicine-power he moved the
brothers back to where they had been when they started to meet Scoo'-malt,
and he changed them into mountains. Then he made Scoo'-malt helpless by
turning her lower body into stone.
Taking her basketful of et-quah (camas), Scoo'-malt threw it back to her
people, to the Kalispel country, so that none would grow in the land of the
Okanogans, and she transformed the rest of herself into stone, to remain
there in sight of her stone lovers forever.
Coyote was amused. To the stone maiden, he said: "Because you are a stranger
in this place, you will help the coming generations by giving them good
luck, but they will have to pay you to make their wishes happen." Then he
turned to the mountains that had been warriors, and said: "Choo'-pahk,
because you are proud and would not take part in the fight, you will stand
with your head high and stately. You, Scra'-kan, because a virgin of another
land came to court you, will be loved always by the women for your handsome
coppery body. The women will like pieces of it for decorating their arms and
hands. Nak-ka'-tuya, because you were beaten and kicked to the ground, you
will lie in shame as a mountain ridge for other generations to see."
That is why Choo'-pahk (Mt. Chopaka) looks so proud and fine. Scra'-kan,
nearby, to the north and west, stands without shoulders, a sharp-pointed
peak (in British Columbia). Across the valley of the Similkameen River lies
Nak-ka'-fuya (Mt. Richter, B. C.)
The maiden still sits on the summit where she stopped that day long ago to
comb her hair and paint her face with the red earth paint. The people call
her En-am-tues-Sitting-on-the-summit. The place where she sits is
Mock-fsin-Knoll-be-tween-a-divide. There the people have gone for many
generations to ask for good luck and to pay for their asking with gifts so
that their wishes would come true.[1]
1- En-am-tues is known to the whites as the Tee-hee-hee stone. Tee-hee-hee,
which is not an Okanogan word, may be a comparatively modern corruption of
the verb meaning "to wish" in the Chinook jargon, the old-time trade
language of the Northwest. Derived from the pure Chinook tikekh, "to wish"
in the jargon is given variously as: t'keh, te-ke, tik-eh, lik-eigh,
tak-eigh, tick-ey, fikky, and so forth.
The "wishing stone," or Camas-woman, as it frequently is called, is one of
many wishing stations or shrines in the Northwest where the Indians made
offerings. To pass Camas-woman without depositing a gift was said to bring
sorrow and ill-luck. In return for even the smallest gift, the older
generations of Indians believed she would grant any wish that might be
asked. The sick supplicated for health, the poor for worldly goods, the
ambitious for success in war, the chase, love, and other undertakings.
After the Indians' contact with the fur-traders, coin entered largely into
the gifts, and the white men, learning of the Camas-woman's influence,
robbed her of all her wealth.
When the Colville Reservation was thrown open to settlement in 1900, a
prospector dynamited the shrine to see if it concealed anything of value.The
stone, originally about five feet in height, is now a pile of its shattered
parts. After it was blasted, some of the Indians gathered up the fragments
and heaped them to a height of six or seven feet.
Mourning Dove remembers when the stone was intact. En-am-tues, situated on a
divide overlooking the Okanogan Valley from the east, is seven miles west
and south of Molson, Washington. One of the main cross-country trails passed
by it, but there are no modern roads in the vicinity.
The camas which the maiden threw back to her people is the "black camas"
that grows on Camas Prairie near Calispell Lake, Pend Oreille County,
Washington. Kalispel Indians who dig the root receive as high as a dollar a
gallon for it from people of their own and other tribes. The Kalispel
country always has been noted for its rich camas grounds.
The name, Scra'-kan, applied to one of the brother-mountains, is a modern
Okanogan word that originally was used to designate the copper kettles
traded to the Indians by the fur companies. Before the coming of the whites,
gold nuggets and copper were made into bracelets, the pieces strung
together. An ornament of this kind was called skel-ear-qu-nekst'', which
means "circle-around-the-wrist," and this word was the only one by which
either of the metals was known.
Taken from Coyote Tales by Humishuma, Colville-Okanogan for Mourning
Dove [Christine Quintasket], 1933
There were three brothers, all great warriors. They lived in Okanogan
country. Choo'-pahk - Sticking - was the oldest; the second brother was
Scra'-kan - Copper - and the youngest was Nak-ka'-tuya-Cut-up.
Among the Kalispel people lived a maiden named Scoo'-mdt-Virgin. Her father
was chief of the Kalispels.
One sun Scoo'-malt filled a basket with camas roots and started for the
Okanogan country. She hoped to please the handsome, coppery Scra'-kan and
become his wife. Upon reaching the summit of the range overlooking the
Okanogan Valley from the east, she stopped to make herself beautiful. She
combed and braided her long black hair and painted her face with red earth
paint. In their dreams the three brothers saw Scoo'-malt coming, and they
went to meet her. Each asked her to marry him, and then the younger brothers
fought. Nak-ka'-fuya slashed the shoulders off Scra'-kan,
while Scra'-kan knocked.
Nak-ka'-fuya down and kicked him into a long heap, flat on the ground.
Coyote came along as the brothers were fighting, and he laughed at seeing
them fighting so hard over the Kalispel maiden. He thought it was a good
joke, but his glee angered the girl, and she spoke sharply to him. Her
words, in turn, angered Coyote. He would show the maiden that she could not
talk that way to him. With the help of his great medicine-power he moved the
brothers back to where they had been when they started to meet Scoo'-malt,
and he changed them into mountains. Then he made Scoo'-malt helpless by
turning her lower body into stone.
Taking her basketful of et-quah (camas), Scoo'-malt threw it back to her
people, to the Kalispel country, so that none would grow in the land of the
Okanogans, and she transformed the rest of herself into stone, to remain
there in sight of her stone lovers forever.
Coyote was amused. To the stone maiden, he said: "Because you are a stranger
in this place, you will help the coming generations by giving them good
luck, but they will have to pay you to make their wishes happen." Then he
turned to the mountains that had been warriors, and said: "Choo'-pahk,
because you are proud and would not take part in the fight, you will stand
with your head high and stately. You, Scra'-kan, because a virgin of another
land came to court you, will be loved always by the women for your handsome
coppery body. The women will like pieces of it for decorating their arms and
hands. Nak-ka'-tuya, because you were beaten and kicked to the ground, you
will lie in shame as a mountain ridge for other generations to see."
That is why Choo'-pahk (Mt. Chopaka) looks so proud and fine. Scra'-kan,
nearby, to the north and west, stands without shoulders, a sharp-pointed
peak (in British Columbia). Across the valley of the Similkameen River lies
Nak-ka'-fuya (Mt. Richter, B. C.)
The maiden still sits on the summit where she stopped that day long ago to
comb her hair and paint her face with the red earth paint. The people call
her En-am-tues-Sitting-on-the-summit. The place where she sits is
Mock-fsin-Knoll-be-tween-a-divide. There the people have gone for many
generations to ask for good luck and to pay for their asking with gifts so
that their wishes would come true.[1]
1- En-am-tues is known to the whites as the Tee-hee-hee stone. Tee-hee-hee,
which is not an Okanogan word, may be a comparatively modern corruption of
the verb meaning "to wish" in the Chinook jargon, the old-time trade
language of the Northwest. Derived from the pure Chinook tikekh, "to wish"
in the jargon is given variously as: t'keh, te-ke, tik-eh, lik-eigh,
tak-eigh, tick-ey, fikky, and so forth.
The "wishing stone," or Camas-woman, as it frequently is called, is one of
many wishing stations or shrines in the Northwest where the Indians made
offerings. To pass Camas-woman without depositing a gift was said to bring
sorrow and ill-luck. In return for even the smallest gift, the older
generations of Indians believed she would grant any wish that might be
asked. The sick supplicated for health, the poor for worldly goods, the
ambitious for success in war, the chase, love, and other undertakings.
After the Indians' contact with the fur-traders, coin entered largely into
the gifts, and the white men, learning of the Camas-woman's influence,
robbed her of all her wealth.
When the Colville Reservation was thrown open to settlement in 1900, a
prospector dynamited the shrine to see if it concealed anything of value.The
stone, originally about five feet in height, is now a pile of its shattered
parts. After it was blasted, some of the Indians gathered up the fragments
and heaped them to a height of six or seven feet.
Mourning Dove remembers when the stone was intact. En-am-tues, situated on a
divide overlooking the Okanogan Valley from the east, is seven miles west
and south of Molson, Washington. One of the main cross-country trails passed
by it, but there are no modern roads in the vicinity.
The camas which the maiden threw back to her people is the "black camas"
that grows on Camas Prairie near Calispell Lake, Pend Oreille County,
Washington. Kalispel Indians who dig the root receive as high as a dollar a
gallon for it from people of their own and other tribes. The Kalispel
country always has been noted for its rich camas grounds.
The name, Scra'-kan, applied to one of the brother-mountains, is a modern
Okanogan word that originally was used to designate the copper kettles
traded to the Indians by the fur companies. Before the coming of the whites,
gold nuggets and copper were made into bracelets, the pieces strung
together. An ornament of this kind was called skel-ear-qu-nekst'', which
means "circle-around-the-wrist," and this word was the only one by which
either of the metals was known.
Taken from Coyote Tales by Humishuma, Colville-Okanogan for Mourning
Dove [Christine Quintasket], 1933