TWO INDIAN LEGENDS

This bridge was known by the Indians as the Bridge of Tomaniwuas. At this time the country to the south and the north was a fertile plain. There did not exist the peaks of St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams. Midway in the bridge a fire was kept burning by an old witch woman. Her hair was scraggly, her teeth were yellow and cracked, and she had the scolding, cackling voice of all witch women. Her name was Loowit. Indians would try to steal the fire. She would not even let them come near to get warm, and even though she felt sorry for them, she scolded and scourged them so they would not come too near.

Finally she could no longer stand it, and she asked Tomaniwuas if she might give the fire to the people. He consented and she gave the people the fire so they might be warm and eat cooked food.

Now the people stopped and talked to Loowit as they passed back and forth. There were two great chiefs living at this time---Wyest, chief of the southern Indians, and Klickitat, chief of the northern Indians. The chiefs were friends and often met on the bridge. Loowit thought they were handsome.

One night when Tomaniwuis came to talk to her, she asked that he might grant one wish to her. He said that because she was very faithful, he would grant her just one wish. She asked that she might be young and beautiful. Tomaniwuis sighed because he was afraid that there would be trouble, but he granted her wish.

The next day, tales of Loowit's new beauty spread far and near on the two sides of the river. Many young braves came to admire her, and she no longer had to gather the wood as the young men brought it to her. Above all the young men, Loowit liked Wyeast and Klickitat the best. Both of the great chiefs fell in love with her too, but she could not choose which one she liked the best. Before this, the people of the north and south had been friendly, but now with the two chiefs rivals for the hand of Loowit, the two nations became rivals too. The chiefs no longer stopped to talk on the bridge. The people no longer went back and forth in peace. Wars broke out and people were killed. Tomaniwuis was angry with Loowit and one night he came down to the bridge. Loowit begged him not to change her back into an old crone.

"No," said Tomaniwuis, "I will kill you."

"No," cried Loowit, "What will Wyeast and Klickitat do without me?"

"I will destroy them, too," answered Tomaniwuis. "If they were really good chiefs, they would not let their people go to war about just a woman."

Tomaniwuis killed them both and the two great chiefs went without a murmur of fear. Then Tomaniwuis warned the people on the north and the south to stay a long way from the bridge as he would destroy it so that ever after the tribes would be separated.

That night the thunder roared and the lightening flashed. The earth trembled for miles around. In the center of the arch, a crack appeared. Another appeared six yards from it and a great section of the bridge fell into the river. With it went the fire which Loowit had kept burning until her death. The next morning the fire was no more and in the place of the bridge, the water tumbled over great rocks that had fallen down.

Tomaniwuis did not want to bury the lovely Loowit and her two braves, so he turned them into beautiful mountains where all could see their beauty. Loowit became Mt. St. Helens on the north side with the northern chief, Klickitat, becoming Mt. Adams, beside her. On the south side loomed the southern chief, Wyeast, as he turned into the shining Mt. Hood. These peaks still stand today.

This is just one Northwest Indian legend. In fact, there is more then one version of this legend with all of them being correct depending on which tribe's version you are reading.

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According to the Walla Walla Indians' tradition, the supernatural animal or the animal which has "medicine powers" is the wolf. Other Indian tribes attribute these powers to various animals such as the coyote, whale, eagle etc. The Walla Walla Indians were located in the southeastern portion of Washington, and the Ki-Use Girls or Twins is a legend about two extraordinary rocks on the Columbia River.

The wolf, the great medicine man, was walking home one day when he came across three beautiful Ki-use (Cayuse) girls. He fell desperately in love with them. The wolf watched as they carried stones into the river. They were trying to make an artificial cascade or rapid, to catch the salmon that would leap over it. The wolf secretly watched their operations throughout the rest of the day. But during the night, the wolf would come and destroy what they had built. He did this for successive evenings. On the fourth morning, he saw the girls weeping on the bank, and inquired what was the matter. They told him they were starving, as they could get no fish since they have no dam. The wolf then proposed to build a dam for them, if they would become his wives. The Ki-use girls consented or sooner die from the lack of food. The wolf built a dam using stones which stretched from one end of the Columbia to the other.

For a long time he lived happily with the three sisters (a custom very frequent among the Indians, who marry as many sisters in a family as they possibly can); but at a length the wolf became jealous of his wives, and, by his medicine powers, changed two of them into basalt pillars, on the south side of the river. He then changed himself into a large rock, somewhat similar to them, on the north side, so that he might watch them for ever afterwards. But what happened to the third sister? Did you not notice a cavern between the rocks where the river now flows? That is all that remains of her.

***This legend was written down by the artist, Paul Kane, as he made his way throughout the northwest in the 1840's. This was how the Indians of the Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes explained the rocks bordering the Columbia River near the present Walulla Junction.

References

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Last modified on: January 31, 2004