- Told by Stephen Savage to Albert Gatschet, Grand Ronde Reservation 1877
Now I’m going to tell you a myth You Should pay careful attention to what I say. There was Coyote. He is piling up the earth and stone to make a big Mountain (Mt. Hood) The Grizzly comes. He says to Coyote, “Where will you be going?” Then Coyote says, “I will go on yonder inland.” Then Grizzly says, “what will you be doing there?” Coyote says, “I will make the world.” “Who told you to do that? We’d best fight it out!” Grizzly says. Then Coyote says, “No! We should swallow something.” Grizzly says, “No we should fight together.” Coyote says, “Well, how about if we WOLF-DOWN STONES.” “WOLF-DOWN! We’ll wolf-down stones!” says Grizzly. Then Coyote says, “These stones we swallow; they should be red hot!” “Absolutely so, but how many?” says Grizzly Then Coyote says “We will swallow five. First you swallow, then ME, I will swallow.” 17 “OK” Grizzly says. Then Grizzly put hot stones in his mouth; then he swallowed five, then he quit swallowing. Then he says to Coyote, “Now you!” “OK,” says Coyote. Then Coyote puts strawberries in his mouth. Then he swallows. He only swallows strawberries. He was just fooling Grizzly. Then he swallowed five. Then he says to Grizzly, “Now all of those stones there, you had better wolf-down all of them!” “OK,” says Grizzly. Then Grizzly swallowed all the hot stones, a LOT of hot stones. Then the very life was burnt out of him. Then he died. Then Coyote thinks, “What should I do now? I’ll go. I’ll never come back this way. This land will live on.” Then he took the Grizzly, he skinned him, and cut his body up into little pieces. He gathered up all the pieces. He threw them around everywhere. Then he threw the heart of the Grizzly to the Molalla country. Then he said “These people here, they will be real hunters, they won’t be a poor worthless sort of people. They will go get game. That will be their way in the world to come.” Thank you in advance for supporting the agreement allowing Molalla Indians to retain the tradition and heritage while honoring and respecting the Molalla People.
