In the Reign of Coyote/How the Animals secured Salmon
HOW THE ANIMALS SECURED SALMON
HE next day Juanita said, "When Klayukat told us about the robin and salmon berry, why did n't we ask him if he knew a story about the real salmon?"
"Let 's go and ask him now, though I don't see that a salmon could do much—living always in the water."
"But the salmon berry children did much. Why not a salmon? Wilt thou ask him, Tonio?"
"Yes. Come along," and they walked across to the saddlery.
"About a salmon? Well, I know how the animals first got salmon. Will that do? Yes? Well, sit on the hides, and I will tell you that story."
In the olden times there were a great many salmon in the sea, but none could get up the river. Five old beaver sisters built a dam at the mouth of the river and would not let them pass.
The animals up the river were starving. They had eaten all the berries and nuts and roots of the past year, and there would be no more food for them for three moons. They went in a body to Coyote and prayed, "O Coyote! get us some salmon, else our bones will cut through our skins."
"I will think what to do," answered Coyote. He thought and thought and thought. Then he made a boat and started down alone to the mouth of the river.
When he got near the dam, he changed himself into an Indian baby tied to a papoose board. Then he lay in the bottom of the boat and floated until he was just above the dam. Just then one of the five sisters came out to the river's edge. As soon as Coyote saw her, he began to wail like a little baby. She waded in and brought the canoe to shore.
Then she called to her sisters: "O sisters! I have found a baby. His mother must have been drowned from the canoe, and he has floated down alone."
"She waded in and brought the canoe to shore"
The other sisters crowded around to see him and to pinch his round little cheeks. He began to cry. Then they said, "Let us give him some food."
They gave him shredded salmon, and it tasted very good to hungry Coyote. He laughed and held up his tiny hands. They laughed with him and pinched his cheeks and caressed him. Then they took him to their camp and left him alone while they went out to watch the dam.
After they had disappeared, Coyote changed back to his own form. He hunted around for the key of the dam. He did not find it, but he found some dried salmon and ate it.
The sisters came home at sundown. They saw only the little baby on a papoose board in the corner where they had left him. When they missed their dried salmon, they exclaimed, "This is strange"; but they did not suspect the baby.
The next sunrise the sisters went to guard the dam. Coyote became himself again, and again searched for the key. He did not find it, but he found and ate some more dried salmon. At night, when the sisters missed their food, they said, "This is wonderful." They looked keenly at the baby on the papoose board in the corner. He smiled and cooed, "Goo, goo!" They smiled back and said, "No, it cannot be the baby."
This happened for four suns. On the fifth Coyote found the key to the dam hanging on a knot of an elder tree. So fast did he run to the river that the earth trembled beneath his steps.
The sisters, sitting at the dam, were shaken. "This is amazing," they said. "That baby must be a monster."
Just then they saw Coyote in his own form running towards them. They seized clubs and fell upon him. He wriggled away and plunged into the water. He swam to the door of the dam and unlocked it. The river roared through, breaking away the whole dam in its hurry. Then the salmon swam up the river, and ever since, to this day, the animals have not needed to go hungry.
"What funny old Señoras to give a baby dried salmon!" laughed Juanita. "I never knew of people's giving a baby salmon, did you, Tonio?"
"But this was not a real baby. It was Coyote, so it did n't matter what they gave him. He could eat anything. So could I now. Let 's go and ask Maria for a tortilla." And with a "Thank you, Klayukat," both children started to the kitchen.