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."
