Coyote Breaks the Fish Dam

Transcript of the Voices of the Wild Earth episode. Lightly formatted from the original production script.

JEANETTE WEASKUS: COYOTE CREATES CELILO FALLS

6/15/2022

INTRO: WELCOME TO VOICES OF THE WILD EARTH — A NEW PODCAST

SERIES FROM THE IDAHO MYTHWEAVER. I’M JANE FRITZ.

BACK IN 1990, I PRODUCED A SERIES FOR PUBLIC RADIO CALLED

KEEPERS OF THE EARTH. IT INCLUDED THE STORIES OF NEZ PERCE

ELDERS, THOSE THAT ARE SHARED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.

TIMELESS STORIES ABOUT HOW TO CARE FOR THE PLANET AND ONE

ANOTHER. SUCH STORIES ARE MEANT TO BE HEARD AGAIN AND AGAIN,

SO LET’S LISTEN NOW.…

JEANETTE: Hello, my name is Jeanette Weaskus and I am an enrolled member

of the Nez Perce Tribe, or Nimi’ipuu. I used to work for the tribal radio station,

KIYE and my show was called “Titwaatit Time” which means “Story Time.” This

podcast for The Idaho Mythweaver’s Voices of the Wild Earth focuses on the

natural world with topics about trees, wolves, and salmon, and its archive of

Indigenous oral histories. My contribution to the series is to share a story that

fascinates many of the tribal elders that I have known over the decades and

continues to be their favorite. This story is called, Coyote Breaks the Fish Dam

and is also known as, How Coyote Freed the Salmon.

First, I will talk a little about what Coyote means to the Nez Perce people.

He is one of the Creator’s eldest children and was put on the earth to help

human beings who are the Creator’s youngest children. This relationship mirrors

the tribal kinship way of how the elder siblings teach and help their younger

siblings. Coyote continues to be a good big brother to us through the pantheon

of Nez Perce Tales where he taught everything good and bad that a person

would encounter in everyday village life. Coyote has also made the world safe

for human beings by ridding the land of dangerous monsters, and kept people

alive by creating all kinds of foods to eat. As the eldest of Creator’s children,

Coyote was taught by the Great Maker of us All and passes this knowledge

down so that humans can live their best life. And now we will take a look at what

teachings from Coyote are held dear by the most knowledgeable of tribal elders.

Coyote Breaks the Fish Dam is a story about caring for your neighbors. It

takes place at Celilo Falls where Coyote finds that 5 sisters have lived there

since ancient times and dammed the falls to trap all the fish. Not only are the

fish unable to go upriver to spawn, but all the people and animals who live along

the rivers cannot have any fish to eat. The sisters killed anyone who came near

the dam and had never let a single fish out. Coyote watched the sisters for a few

days before making a plan to trick them into taking him into their lodge. He

turned himself into a baby that was so cute they could not resist it except for the

youngest sister who clearly saw it was Coyote. She warned the older sisters but

they dismissed her, saying she was wrong about the baby. When Coyote got

close enough to the dam, he broke it down and set the salmon free. Now we will

hear the late Nez Perce elder, Mari Watters, tell the story of How Coyote Broke

the Fish Dam:

MARI WATTERS: “Once Coyote was walking along on a hot day. He was going

upriver and he saw the river and said, ‘Oh let me cool myself in the water.’ And

he swam down the swift river. After a while he came ashore and mosquitos just

swarmed all over him. So he named the place by saying, ‘This will be Mosquito

Place.’ He swam down the river a little further and then he got out again. ‘Ah,

this is a nice sunny slope, they will call this place Hiila’qat Paat Kiine Ka, ‘The

Sunny Slope.’ He kept a little farther until he came to a waterfall near where the

Wasco people lived. Five maidens had dwelt there from ancient times. This was

the place where the great dam kept the fish from passing up the stream.

Then suddenly he saw a maiden. Quickly, he went back upstream aways

and said, ‘Let me look like a little baby floating down the river on a raft in a

Flathead type baby board, all laced up.’ And so it became. As Coyote was

drifting down he cried, ‘Wah-Awaa-Awaa.’ And the maidens hearing this quickly

swam over thinking that a baby might be drowning. The eldest maiden caught it

first and she said, ‘Oh what a cute baby!’ But the youngest maiden said, ‘This is

no baby, that is Coyote.’ And the others answered, ‘Stop saying that, you will

hurt the baby’s feelings.’ The Coyote put up his bottom lip as if he were about to

cry and then the maidens took the baby home and cared for it and fed it and he

grew very fast. And when he was crawling around one day, he spilled some

water on purpose. ‘Oh mother,’ he said, ‘Will you get me some more water?’

And the youngest sister said, ‘Why don’t you make him go and get it himself?

The river is nearby’ So the maidens told Coyote to get the water himself.

He began to crawl toward the river, but when he got out of sight, he

jumped up and began to run. The oldest sister turned around and said, ‘He is

out of sight already, he certainly can move fast!’

‘That is because he is Coyote!’ the youngest said.

When Coyote reached the river, he swam to the fish dam and tore it down;

pulling out the stones so that all the water rushed free. Then he crawled up on

the rocks and shouted gleefully, ‘Mothers, your fish dam is just broken down!’

The sisters ran down and saw that it was true. The youngest maiden just

said, ‘I told you he was Coyote.’

Coyote said, ‘You have kept all the people from having salmon for such a

long time by keeping them from going upstream. Now the people will be happy

because they will get salmon. Now salmon will go straight upriver and spawn.’

This is how Celilo, Oregon came to be. Where the Wasco people are today

because Coyote tore down the fish dam.

JEANETTE: Like many Nez Perce Tales, Mari’s story describes the origin of a

local rock formation, with characters interacting with the environment to imbibe

knowledge to the listener. This particular story is how Coyote teaches the

listener to take action. He took steps to free the salmon from captivity and in

doing so, helped the salmon so they could go spawn. Coyote let everyone have

salmon instead of just the sisters who were keeping it all for themselves. The

late Nez Perce elder, Al Slickpoo, Sr., leaves those listening to him tell the same

story with the motives with which Coyote was operating:

AL SLICKPOO, SR.: “The moral of the story is that the salmon was intended to

be shared by all people, and not just any one tribe or one group. It should be

shared by everyone and this was the reason why that the Coyote had broken the

dam. He felt that the people should share in what Mother Nature had to provide

for us.

JEANETTE: Now you know how Coyote went to a great deal of trouble to break

down the fish dam long ago and create Celilo Falls so that all the people and

animals could have salmon. In 1957, the Army Corps of Engineers together with

Bonneville Power Administration rebuilt what Coyote tore down with the

construction of The Dalles Dam. On that day in March, thousands of people

from all the tribes who fished there gathered to watch as Celilo Falls went

underwater. What does Coyote think of these new 5 sisters who put up a dam

so they could sell electricity to all the people? He may say something like, “If

you are starving, you can’t eat electricity, but you can eat the salmon I gave to

everyone.”

The late Nez Perce elder, Rick Ellenwood, summed up the feelings of that

generation who fished the falls and then saw it flooded by the dam:

RICK ELLENWOOD, SR.: It was very disappointing when the dam inundated

Celilo Falls. Just like losing something really valuable and great. Like losing a

close friend. You kinda felt really downtrodden, and just lost. Now what are we

going to do? It wasn’t just a place to catch fish, it was a gathering of many

people and we had a lot of friends and we’d visit. We had dances down there

and we had feasts, dances, get-togethers — all these tribes and it was fun. And

that was gone. And the fish was gone. Sure they give us all kinds of money—

you’re going to get several million dollars, and it was doled out. And I still don’t

think that we ever got paid enough to even take away the heartbreak and the

fish and the things that we are now fighting over. It’s never has compensated

that void in my life. It’s still empty. And that’s the way I still feel about it. Money

has never done me justice. It’s gone. Salmon would still be here as far as that

goes. But now we’re destroying that, too. So I just feel that Celilo was

something that we all lost. All the Native Americans in the Northwest. We lost

something all together. A close friend.

JEANETTE: Not only did Coyote provide salmon to all the tribes who fished

there, but a close friend as well. Take care of yourselves and be sure to watch

for the upcoming, Voices of the Earth podcast: People of the Salmon.

Qe’ci’yew’yew, thanks for listening. I’m Jeanette Weaskus.

VOICES OF THE WILD EARTH PODCASTS ARE PRODUCED BY

ME, JANE FRITZ, AND PRODUCTION ASSISTANT JUSTIN LANTRIP FOR THE

IDAHO MYTHWEAVER. SPECIAL THANKS TO STORYTELLER AND NEZ

PERCE PRODUCER JEANETTE WEASKUS.

FUNDING FOR THIS SERIES COMES FROM THE IDAHO HUMANITIES

COUNCIL, AND THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

AS PART OF THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021. JOIN US

AGAIN AT MYTHWEAVER.ORG.

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