Indian Legends of Vancouver Island

Indian Legends of Vancouver
Island

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Title: Indian Legends of Vancouver Island
Author: Alfred Carmichael
Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9459] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 3,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND ***

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[Illustration: THE LONE INDIAN]
INDIAN LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND
TEXT BY ALFRED CARMICHAEL
ILLUSTRATED BY J. SEMEYN

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
The unsophisticated aboriginal of British Columbia is almost a memory
of the past. He leaves no permanent monument, no ruins of former
greatness. His original habitation has long given place to the frame
house of sawn timber, and with the exception of the carvings in black
slate made by the Hydah Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and
the stone hammers, spear and arrow points, fashioned in the days
before the coming of the white man, the mementos of his sojourn in
British Columbia are only relics in wood, bark or reeds.
In the Alberni District of Vancouver Island there are two tribes of
Indians, the Seshaht and the Opitchesaht. During the winter season the
Seshahts live in a village which occupies a beautiful and commanding
site on the west bank of the Somass River.
Some thirty years ago when I first knew the Seshahts, they still
celebrated the great Lokwana dance or wolf ritual on the occasion of an
important potlatch, and I remember well the din made by the blowing
of horns, the shaking of rattles, and the beating of sticks on the roof
boards of Big Tom's great potlatch house, when the Indians sighted the
suppositional wolves on the river bank opposite the Village.
In those days we were permitted to attend the potlatches and witness
the animal and other dances, among which were the "Panther," "Red
Headed Woodpecker," "Wild Swan" and the "Sawbill Duck." Generally

we were welcome at the festivals, provided we did not laugh or show
sign of any feeling save that of grave interest. Among my Indian
acquaintances of those days was Ka-coop-et, better known in the
district as Mr. Bill. Bill is a fine type of Seshaht, quite intelligent and
with a fund of humour. Having made friends, he told me in a mixture of
broken English and Chinook some of the old folk lore of his tribe. Of
these stories I have selected for publication "How Shewish Became a
Great Whale Hunter" and "The Finding of the Tsomass." This latter
story as I present it, is a composite of three versions of the same tale, as
received, by Gilbert Malcolm Sproat about the year 1862; by myself
from "Bill" in 1896, and by Charles A. Cox, Indian Agent, resident at
Alberni, from an old Indian called Ka-kay-un, in September 1921.
Ka-kay-un credits his great great grandfather with being the father of
the two young Indians who with the slave See-na-ulth discovered the
valley now known as Alberni, while "Bill" gave the credit to the sons
of "Wick-in-in-ish."
The framework for "The Legend of Eut-le-ten," was related to me by
Rev. M. Swartout in the year 1897. Mr. Swartout was a missionary to
the West Coast Indian tribes. He spoke the language of the natives
fluently, and took great pains to get the story with as much accuracy as
possible. A few years later, Mr. Swartout was drowned during a heavy
storm while crossing in an open boat from the islands in Barkley Sound
to Uclulet.
In the making of the stories into English, I have worked in what
knowledge I have of the customs and habits of the West Coast Indians
of Vancouver Island. In a few instances, due to a lack of refinement of
thought in the original stories, I have taken some license