Coyote and the Salmon (A Klamath Tale)
Retold by Susan Selk (Fairfield Public Schools permission to copy)
It was back in the beforetime, and Bear and Eagle had just returned from their fishing expedition with bad news.
"The salmon are gone from the river!" roared Bear.
"We did not see even one," Eagle called out in anger.
This was terrible news. Of all the fish in the river or the sea, the salmon was the most important to the animal people. It was the tastiest of all the fish, and in two days there was to be a great feast. How could there be a feast without salmon?
Crane could not stop pacing. "How can there be no salmon?" he cried.
"Certainly, someone has stolen them all," Eagle said sadly.
A gray cloud of doom settled over the village. The hunters returned with plenty of good meat to eat, the sky was blue, the grass was green, but as the animal people ate, all they could think of was a feast with no salmon!
Coyote may have been more upset than any of the other animals, for he loved salmon more than anything in the world. But Coyote was also clever, so he wasted no time thinking of a way to find the salmon and return them to the river.
"Who could steal so many fish?" he thought to himself.
He considered Pelican or Sea Lion, but where would they hide all those fish? And they certainly could not have eaten so many. Then he thought of Fox, who’s den was near a pond, but the pond could not hold even 30 salmon. Never mind the 30,000 that were missing.
There were other ponds though. One was just below the waterfall near the house of the she-witches. Coyote laughed to himself, and thought some more, then he had an idea. He scurried off in search of an alder tree.
Coyote pulled two large pieces of bark from the trunk of the alder tree. Alder bark is very red, so when coyote cut the peeled pieces of bark into the shape of a fish, they looked a little like salmon. He was certain that from far away, they would look a lot like salmon.
Coyote smeared the marrow of a deer’s bone all over the bark fish and wrapped them with leaves, put them in his quiver, and set out for the she-witches' cave.
When he arrived, the she-witches were sitting by a fire, roasting acorns. They did not get many visitors, so when they saw Coyote coming up the path to their cave, they were quite happy to have some company.
"Such a lovely evening, ladies," Coyote called out as he walked up to the fire.
"The perfect evening," the witches called back.
Coyote sat down by the fire and they talked for a while about the animal people of the foothills and of the weather, and other polite conversations. All the while Coyote was looking about, hoping to get a glimpse of salmon in the she-witches pond. But there were none.
As Coyote stood up, looking as though he was about to leave, the she-witches offered him some of their acorns. He accepted a handful politely, "They will go well with my fish dinner tonight.” As he spoke, he pulled one of the alder-bark salmon ever so slightly, out of his quiver. Just enough for the she-witches to catch a glimpse, then he pushed it back inside.
Coyote did not go far. He settled down a short distance from the she-witches cave, gathered some wood and started a fire on a nice flat spot. The two witches could not believe what they had seen.
"Where did he get salmon?" whispered the first.
"How did he get salmon, no one has salmon,” the second witch questioned. “We should know. We have the salmon"
“SHUSH!” Her sister replied. “He might hear You.”
The two witches watched and whispered and frowned at each other as Coyote pretended to roast the alder – bark salmon over the fire. The deer marrow melted and spit as it spattered in the fire. The witches ate acorns as they watched, and wondered whether Coyote would offer them a share of the salmon. He did not. And their mouths began to water.
"Since he has salmon, let us fetch some of our own," they said at last. And taking woven mats to hold over their heads, they stepped through the waterfall and vanished.
In a flash Coyote sprang up and dashed to the waterfall's side. He poked his head in through the water just far enough to see what lay beyond.
Beyond the curtain of water lay a great cave, and the great cave was filled with a pond greater than that which lay out under the sky. Behind the dam that made the great pond, the water flashed with thousands of salmon. There were so many salmon that the witches, standing at the pond's rim, "had" only to dip in their hands to pull out a fat fish.
"Tso!" crowed Coyote to himself. And he hurried back to his campfire.
At nightfall Coyote made a great show of yawning. He smoothed a place on the ground near his fire and made a bed of pine needles. Then he lay down and pretended to sleep. It was not easy, for he could smell the real salmon roasting.
At last, when the witches had eaten, one yawned and said, "I am sleepy, too."
"We must be careful," warned the other. "We must keep watch until the stranger has fallen to the bottom of sleep."
Coyote breathed deeply and sleepily, and all the while he listened. And all the while he listened, the witches argued whether he was truly asleep. So Coyote began to snore.
"Hai! I told you he was asleep," said the one, and together they went into their house.
When the moon went down behind the hill, Coyote slipped down across the trail and under the waterfall. There he set to work. He pried out rocks and pawed at the earth until he had made a great hole at the end of the dam. The water ran out in a rush, and with it the fish. Salmon swam past Coyote's legs and leaped over his back in their eagerness to be gone.
Inside the house of the she-witches, one murmured in her sleep, "Do you hear the waterfall laughing?"
But the laughter was Coyote's. He had freed the salmon. And If he had not, there would be no salmon in the river today.