Closed Captions

Alan Pinkham shares Nez Perce creation narratives and traditional stories from the Legend times, before humans arrived. He explains the cultural significance of star constellations like Huma (the Big Dipper), the frog in the moon, and coyote tales featuring the Heart of the Monster. Pinkham connects these stories to teachings about navigation, behavior, and how the Nez Perce people were created from the monster's remains near the Clearwater River.

Transcript

0:13 oh there it is okay this modern stuff I get lost in sometimes um what I'm going to talk about is is some of the coyote stories that I learn you know some of them I learned when I was a kid others later and I'm still learning it seemed like you never stop learning about your own
0:36 culture sometimes and what I'm going to talk about is what we call Legend times those times before they were human beings you know so that's a long time ago and so one of the stories that we had is about this star
0:57 formation you you probably recognize it but we call this Huma that's our name for this consolation and there's a story that goes along with this old coyote or rather old wolf he was sitting down and looking up and coyote came along and asked him
1:21 well who are you looking at says oh I'm looking at two of them up there don't you see them he was looking at these two right here and he says' don't you see them they're grizzly bears up there in the meantime old Well's four younger brothers came along and they sat down they looked up and asked what are you looking at said oh we're looking at the two grizzly bears up there and old Wolfie kept
1:45 persisting I want to go up there and see these two grizzly bears and so coyote he said I'll show you how to go up there so he makes five bundles of arrows and a bow and he shoots a first Arrow up and it stays up there and the second arrows sticks to the first and the third arrow to the second arrow and came all the way down to the ground and then C says now you can go up
2:10 this Arrow Way and you can see these two grizzly bears so but old Wolf's next youngest brother and his two younger brothers wanted to go up next he said I want to go up next I'll take my next two youngest Brothers with me so they go up the arrow way and they sit down here here and here and look
2:34 across to the two grizzly bears in the meantime old wolf says well I want to go up next but I want to take my little dog with me and my youngest brother so they go up the AR away and here's old wolf right here and his little dog and his youngest brother so now they all sit down and
2:58 look across at the two grizzly bears and coyote he says when the human beings come they will look up there and they will see h two grizzly bears five Wolf brothers and one little dog now some people call it the Big Dipper but we call
3:19 it so this is our story okay now there's a lesson here where does the two grizzly bears line up with right here the North Star so now if you understand where the North Star is and you understand and if if you ever
3:43 laid you know in your garden or or your lawn somewhere or your porch and you looked up and you seen the Big Dipper it's always in a little bit different position when you look at it later on while it's rotating around a North star so we understood this you know so he understood that the North Star always stayed in the same place and
4:06 it was all over in the norly Northerly Direction you know the opposite of south east and west you can figure out pretty readily because sun rises and sets East and West so now you as you learn this as a long young child now you understand the four directions and where the North Star is so if you
4:30 if ever any of you ever gone on these mountains and tried to work your way through these mountains with no Compass or map how would you understand which way is North all you have to do is look up in the sky so now we know that this occurred you know that this is one of our Legend and coyotes placed them up there and he says
4:54 when the human beings come they will see this constellation up there so now we have a means of traveling but there's other stories there's a full moon out right tonight well last night I think it was out but it should be out tonight too well there's a little story about this
5:18 too did you know that there's a nesp frog in the moon there's no man in the moon no cow jump through the it's not full of green cheese there's a frog in the moon and he's a nesp frog so how do I know look right here this here that's his right rear foot the bottom of his right rear foot right here see his toes
5:42 there then here's his little round behind right there then over on this side is his other foot so there's frog in a moon I'll tell you how he got up there now this is all Legend times way before the human beings Moon he'd come across the sky and he'd look down and he'd look at
6:07 frog and he'd ask frog well what good are you all you do is just sit down there and just talk talk talk you don't do nothing then frog would holler back and what good are you all you do is go through the sky you don't you don't do anything then you get larger and bigger then you disappear you don't do nothing so the moon would go on the next night the same thing
6:31 say Moon and holler down at FR well what good are you and then you holler back up the moon what good are you you come by the sky you know and and you don't stay very long and then you don't give us warmth like the sun does the sun gives us warmth you know any change of the sun changes the season you don't you don't you don't provide nothing for us you can't even see at night when when you
6:55 come you can see a little bit but you can't see like we do when they see the sunlight so they would argue and the moon would go on three times this happened they would argue they would holler at each other what good are you and and they'd holler back what a good are you you know so on and on they would argue on the third night finally frog he lost his
7:20 temper says I'm going to jump in your eye so frog he jumps and smacks right into the moon and so that's where he at he's R right now so when coyote seen that he says well when a human beings come they'll see the frog in the moon so what does this tell
7:44 you don't Lo don't lose your temper when you're arguing with somebody because you'll end up in some place you're not supposed to be so this is what this little story tells you so there's things like this and then there's a great deal of other stories right down here just below the railroad bridge that goes across where the mill is there and
8:07 then that round curve there that goes down river you'll see in the uh River Bottom large white rocks there's a number of not too many and I'll tell you how those stones got there coyote he was coming along you know he was traveling he was going there coyote he was is always going
8:31 somewhere and the story is he's going somewhere he's going there he doesn't know where this there is but he's going so he's coming and he's he's stops on the hillside here in a nice sunny day like this I'm going to rest so he's wants to take a nap so he naps and he wakes up he's all rested so then he seees he gets up and he looks around and he seen this
8:56 Stone laying there so he goes goes over and he relieves himself on his stone that is he pees on it so he says well I feel better so now he'll come on down so he starts coming down the hill and then pretty soon he heard this Thump Thump Thump Thump and he looked
9:19 back and he couldn't see anything he looks back again you know he kept hearing this noise Thump Thump Thump and he looks back and he's this big rock coming down the hill after him so he said wow he got rock got closer so he started running and he looked back and The Rock was still behind him thump Thum Thum then he'd go this way you know
9:42 and The Rock would follow him Thum th thump maybe run this other way th th the rock is still after him so he says I know what I'll do when I get down by the river bottom I'll just take a real sharp turn so that's what he did when he got down there he just come up the river and that rock hit the river and broke broke up into pieces and that's how that White Rock
10:05 got there so if you ever go there you look for these white rocks they're still down there especially with this low water you can see them now so what does that story tell you don't go peeing on something that you're not supposed to so you know there's all these little lessons with these coyote stories and uh some of them very very interesting and these are all
10:30 Legend times way before human beings ever show up so there's another little uh creation story but it's not this one up here it's the beginning you know they if you ever been out here the camei uh the monster heart of the monster Place some of you have been there I'm sure some of you may not have seen it but there's a story even
10:53 before that this is a story of how coyote got created how he came about now there's some Stones there's Stones down there by U hadway Creek just uh this side of Lewiston you know by the casino there there's a hadway creck comes down and if you look across from
11:17 there probably more where that Caterpillar heavy machinery place is you look across there and you'll see Stones along the uh Ridge line and you look like round backs like backs of uh Elephants or dinosaurs sitting down and they're very high you know 20 30 ft high and there's a number of those all in a
11:40 row then from there you'll see other smaller Stones lined up along that ridg line those are all large animal people and that was before the small animal people came about and this is way before human beings ever came way before so what happened here
12:04 is Creator he calls all large animal people together and he tells them there's going to be a great change this change is coming some of you may not survive but I want you to come out and demonstrate how you want to be and how you want to act and how you want to live then you'll take a
12:27 name and that's what you'll be known as after this great change so the animals yeah all the animal people came out and says well yes this is what we want to do because we want to have you know have a life after this gra change and some of the animal people never got to the meeting there's a draw that comes down
12:51 from that area and there looks like big hay stacks you know rounded Stones you can't recognize they're kind of rounded those were the animal people that came late to the meeting they got changed to Stone because they didn't make the meeting so things happen here that uh is told with these rocks okay now the Creator he
13:16 says I want you to come out and act like you want to be and then you can choose your name and you'll be qualified you're going to help the human beings when they come so dear he comes comes out says well I want to have horns that come up in Branch like this and I want big long ears and a short tail and the human beings can eat my flesh when they come
13:40 but I won't be easy to capture and so he demonstrated how he wanted to live and what how he would behave and uh so he was given what we now know as Mu deer so that was his name so he was qualified and other deer comes out says well I don't like the horns of the first deer I want horns
14:04 that come up and go back like this and I don't like big ears but I want a big long tail that's white on one side and then when I run it'll go like this so he demonstrated how he wanted to be and he was called white tail deer so he was happy got his name and another deer comes out and says well I want to look and have horns like the first deer
14:28 that come up in branch out but I don't want big ears but I want a shorter tail with black on it and human beings can use my flesh and my hide for their clothing and my brains to soften a hide for their clothing so he demonstrated how he wanted to be and how where he wanted to live and he was known and given a name as Blacktail deer so now we
14:53 have three species of animals here and these are the animals that we see today we don't see the large animals that we that were here before us the only reason we know that they were large animals people is that when we went on the plains to clarkon out towards Pasco we would find these great big bones so we knew that there was large
15:16 animal people here at one time so this is part of this story well all the animals all the Moose the deer the grizzly bears Eagles Birds you know all of them and all the snakes and amphibians fishes even the fish even the insects they got their names I'm going to have to give you the Reader's Digest version of this because this
15:38 could go on for a long time but um so now we got all the animals with names you know all of birds and fish they all have names now coyote he just barely makes the meeting he comes in and he says I want to be grizzly bear he say no that name
16:01 is already taken well I want to be Eagle says no that name's already taken so he would he didn't feel very good he says well how am I going to get a name so he tried to act out you know what he wanted to be and he couldn't do anything have you ever heard a coyote at night sounds like three or four of them been talking out there there's only one coyote out there coyote couldn't even talk
16:26 straight so finally the Creator gave the pity on him says I'll give you special powers I'll give the ability to come back to life to change things and to uh uh but you one thing you'll be just like the human beings when a human beings come you'll have all the faults of desires you'll make mistakes like the human beings and you'll even get
16:50 yourself killed but I'll give you the ability to come back to life and so that coyote felt happy then says oh I got a name now IA coyote that's what he was so now he's got a name so there this is where our coyote stories come from now he travels the world and this is where the heart of the
17:14 monster that comes after because K coyote was given his name at this uh great change so so now kot's got a name itaya and so he travels the world and uh but one one thing here uh Grizzly Berry says what are we going to do about day and night just before the meeting
17:38 was breaking up what are we going to do about day and night I want six months day six months night and little chipmunk sitting over there heard what he was saying he said no no no all we need is just one day one night we don't need six months night six months day so G bear and chipmunk they start arguing you know and the catus well you go over there and sit down who Wings the argument that's what we'll have when
18:01 this after this great changes occurs so they sit there and they argue argu six months day six mon night no no no one day one night that's all we need little chip monkeys tails will go black and forth and go like this you know and then had argue and argue and finally Vis he'd get tired he was getting sleepy he'd just about fall asleep he'd wake up say 6 months day 6 months night that's what we want you know that's the way it
18:26 should be little chip monkey's tail go back and forth no no no no one day one night one day that's all we need finally Grizzly Berry fell over and went to sleep he couldn't take it anymore so Chip Mony says Ah I won I won we then we'll just have one day one night so that's what we have now today one day one night because chipmunk won the argument then from there the meeting
18:51 broke up and everybody went their separate ways so is there any questions we got about four or five minutes left yeah as long as you use it for your own use yeah let me come with you with the microphone hold on every culture that we've ever studied
19:14 blames coyote for most things ladies and gentlemen welcome to the tent of many voices you're sitting in the core of Discovery to traveling exhibit National Park's only traveling exhibit and we travel the Louis and Clark Trail along the way and stop every once in a while at various cities and bring presenters into the tent to share their perspectives of
19:37 something related to Lewis and Clark and as you know Lewis and Clark came through this Valley and met with Nez Pur people and with us at this hour is Alan Pinkham he's here to share with you a bit of NES Pur culture so let's give him a nice warm welcome thank you they asked me to talk about coyote and
20:02 his stories and how coyote came about but there's a time period before the human beings we call it the legend times way before human beings even came to this place and we learn from these coyote stories and one of the things that we learn is that things are done for
20:26 certain purposes now you you probably know what and recognize what this consolation is but we call it which is it's not uh the Big Dipper to us it tells us certain things there's a little coyote story attached to
20:48 this old wolf he was sitting down and he was looking up in the meantime Along Comes coyote when coyote sits down and looks up and he ask well what are you looking at says I'm looking at two grizzly bears don't you see them and coyote looks up and he sees these two there's a grizzly bear there's a grizzly bear these two grizzly
21:12 bears and old wolf he persisted I want to go up there and see these two grizzly bears in the meantime old Wolf's four younger brothers come along and they sit down and ask well what are you looking at says oh we're looking at these two grizzly grizzly bears up there don't you to see them and old wolf he persisted I want to go up there and see these two grizzly
21:35 bears so coyote he say I'll show you how to go up there so coyote he makes five bundles of arrows and a bow he shoots the first Arrow up and it stays up there he shoots a second sticks to the first and a third arrow to the second Arrow until it comes all the way down to the ground and kyot says now you can go up this arway then you can see these two
21:57 grizzly bears but old Wolf's next youngest brother says well I want to go up first but I want to take my next two younger brothers with me to go see these grizzly bears so they go up the arway there's the next oldest brother and then these two younger brothers here and they sit down and they look across
22:20 to the two grizzly bears and oldwell says well I want to go up next but I want to take my little dog with me and my youngest brother so they go up the airway and they sit down here this is old wolf this is old wolf here and that's his little dog and that's his younger brother on the
22:42 end so the the five Wolf brothers and Little Dog are up there then and then when coyote sees them up there he says when the human beings come they will look up there and they will see two grizzly bears five Wolf brothers and one little dog that's what we call this formation but what else is attached to
23:07 this the two grizzly bears are lined up with a star which star is that the North Star right so okay now if you hear this story as a young child what impresses you the five Wolf brothers and one little dog or two grizzly bears or the our star they're
23:31 all Associated as one formation so if you ever watched the um stars at night how everything rotates around a North star it always stays in one spot the Big Dipper or rotates around so at different seasons you will see that that formation and different
23:54 position in the sky but the North Star is already there north and south or easy to figure out sunrise and sunet the opposite of North is South so now you have a basis for directions cuz if ever you've been out in these mountains here and you look up the mountain and you can't see anything there's a big
24:17 mountain in the way in all directions so what do you have to do you have to look for North Star or if you weigh out in the plains and the dtas and mon monana and one horizon all the way around you what do you do you look for North Star so we travel this gives the basis
24:40 for our nesp people traveling all over United States what we now call United States well we call this whole continent an island because in every direction there was water there was a great lake to the north there was a bitter water to to the east the bitter water to the west and bitter water to the South so we knew
25:04 this continent was surrounded by water well how did we know that because we went there and this is way before loen Clark even shows up so we travel but there's Other Stories the full moon is out tonight isn't it should be okay now we have a little
25:26 story attached to the full moon there's a frog in a moon there's no cow that jumped over the moon there's it's not full of green cheese there's no man in the moon there's a nest purse frog in a moon how did he get up there well this is all before the human beings come Moon he'd go through the
25:51 sky and he looked down and he'd see frog Moon would ask frog well what good are you all you do is just sit down there you don't do anything and frog would look up at Moon and says well you don't do anything either you just go through the sky you don't do anything so they would argue and argue then the moon would go on next night the same thing they would start arguing moon is say well what good are you all you do is on just sit down there and talk talk talk
26:16 you don't do anything you just sit there all day and all night you don't do anything frog would look up at Moon he says well look at you you just go through the sky you don't provide heat like the sun does you don't provide any seasons for us you know Sun you know he makes things grow and they' argue and argue and argue Moon would go on next night the same thing they' start arguing well what good
26:40 are you what good are you finally frog he lost his temper says I'm going to jump in your eye so he jumps and he lands in Moon's eye and this is where he is today right here this is his right rear foot you can see his toes right right here then right here is a little round
27:03 behind then over here is his left foot the bottom side of his left foot so that's how he got up there now there's a little lesson with this don't lose your temper you may end up in some place you're not supposed to be so that's how frog got up there
27:27 and so there's a lot of little stories like this and uh there's another story one right down here on this Bend right just below the mill in the rail railroad bridge there's some white rocks there coyote he was going there he was
27:50 coming up the river and he wanted to rest and so he found a place on the hillside he laid down he took a little nap and he got he woke up and say well I better keep going but he relieved himself on a rock he peed on a rock so he felt better he okay I'm going
28:13 to go so he come start coming down the hill and he was coming down and he could hear something behind him Thump Thump Thump Thump and he looked back and he couldn't see anything then he kept going down the hill and you heard it coming closer th th th thump he looked back and here was this big rock rolling down a mountain after him so he started running
28:36 and The Rock speeded up and he started running faster it speeded up finally he'd run this way and The Rock would come this way be right behind him he'd go back this way and The Rock would come right behind him this way so he says well I'm going to speed up he's going to run and when I get the river bottom I'm going to go turn quick so he did that and The Rock came down and went in the river and broke apart and if you go down there right now
29:00 you'll see these big white rocks down there this is why coyote got away from a rock but what does that story tell you don't go relieving yourself on Stones so these are little always little some kind of lesson you know don't do things you're not supposed to be doing so these are
29:22 the kinds of stories that we learn from and now there's another longer story but I think what I'll do here there's some of you probably seen this heart of the monster over here well there's another big long story prior to this but this this uh coyote got created just like all the other animal people but uh after he was given his special
29:47 powers coyote he traveled the world you know and there was no human beings just animal people and then one day fox come down river and he says you got to come up here kill this monster eating all the animal people devouring all the animal
30:09 people and so coy thought says well I have to do something so he prepares himself you know he gets makes some rope and gets a little pitch and soot in a little bag and some Flint knives five knives he makes and he comes up over here on cus Prairie over towards
30:32 greville and a monster is right here and he Hollows over this way he hollers that monster you can't eat me like you did the other animal people you can't inhale me and he kept pestering monster it's Wii that's what he was called it's wied
30:54 and so finally monster raises his head and he looks across the Prairie over towards coyote in the meantime coyote tied himself to some mountains with a rope and he kept hollering and pestering monsters you can't eat me like you did the other animal people so monster he says well I'm going to inhale you so he sucks in his breath
31:18 and then Co he goes to the end of the rope and he stops three times he they do this the third time Coy he reaches back back and cuts the Rope and he goes inside the monster's mouth and inside he walks around and he sees the bones and some people some animal people half alive and
31:43 some still walking around still alive yet so he tells them I come here to rescue you people so when I kill this monster I want you all to go to the holes in the body and go to the nose the mouth the ears and and even that hole underneath the tail you go there and when the monster dies you run out these
32:06 holes and they we'll be saved but I want you to kick all the bones out of all the people that have died here also so coyote he takes these knives these Flint knives and he starts cutting at the heart and he'd break a knife he'd get another knife and he'd cut some more he was down to the fifth knife and just one strand of Flesh was holding the
32:31 heart and he used the last split knife he cuts it and it falls and he tells the people okay now get ready to run out because the monster is going to die with his last breath all these holes and then you run out so the monster dies takes his last breath and all animal people run out and they get
32:55 outside and then coyote debates well it this is a nice beautiful Valley here there should be human beings here this Earth should have human beings so he says I'm going to cre create the human being so the parts of this monster he cuts up and he throws it in all
33:16 directions and as those pieces of that monster hit the earth Indian tribes are created from the Earth and monster so now we have tribes all around here like shishoni blackfeet Sue uh sukam Coastal
33:40 tribes and so there's tribes in all directions and then Fox he says well what about people here you should have people that live in this beautiful Valley right here and this right next to the clear river that flows through here there should be human beings here so he thinks and he says oh I know what I'll do so he tells Fox well get some water
34:03 for me so he washes his hands his hands were bloody so when he throws those droplets of Blood on the earth npu nesp people spring up so that's who we are we are blood of the monster and water and Earth that's who we are and so that's how nesp or the Neu people were created they were created right across the river
34:28 here and then fox says well how will people know that this is where you created these human beings so there was a heart and a liver left so coyote says I'll stand this heart up and that's where this rock formation comes from is shaped like a heart stood up on its end and then a liver is set is part of the hillside
34:51 where that there's a little kios up there that they built the kiosk on top of I think when they put that there they didn't know what they that they were covering up the liver but nonetheless that it happened so this is the story of creation and uh and how the human beings came
35:13 about and um how many how much time we have five minutes okay now there's another story now that I talked of Legend times and and there's uh rock formations down at the uh mouth of hatway Creek you know just this side of
35:35 Lewiston there's a number of stories there's the uh creation story of large animal people to small animal people and where coyote comes from and then there's frog and Coyote's fishnet then there's two rattlesnakes and cottontail rabbit and there and a profile of a Indian chief laying on the uh Ridge line
35:59 above that so there's all kinds of stories right around this area at the mouth of hadway Creek and across the river I'll I'll give you a real brief story about the creation story now this is way before human beings even before coyote there was large animal people here on this Earth we knew this because over in a clarkon and over towards Pasco
36:23 we would find these large animal bones so we knew there was large animal people here at one time well the Creator he calls all the animal people together he says there's going to be a great change some of you may not survive this great change but I want you to come out and demonstrate how you want to be and how you want to live and you choose a name
36:47 and you'll be known by that name and you'll be qualified to help the human beings when they come so all animal people gathered and you'll see this formation it's uh down below hadway CC and across the river there's on a ridge line You'll see very large Columns of stone that look like backs of Elephants or
37:12 dinosaurs and they're sitting down in a circle and there's all kinds of other rock formation that are smaller and they all go around the whole ridge line that's all the other animal people and then down the draw there you'll see rock formations that look like hay stacks from uh you know just a few feet high up to almost building size those
37:36 are animal people that came late to the me this meeting so don't be late to meetings you'll turn to Stone so always be there on time so the reason for this meeting Creator he says I want to have you choose a name and you'll become qualified so all the animal people come out and they demonstrate it I I have to give you the short version of this don't have time they came out and they
38:00 demonstrated how they wanted to be and then they chose a name you know U white tail deer black tail deer mu deer elk moose grizzly bear eagle even the fish the salmon and the insects they all got names and some way they would help the human beings when the human beings came and so coyote he just barely made
38:24 the meeting and he says I want to be grizzly bears and know that name is taken well I want to be Eagle know that name is taken already you can have those names so he tried tried to demonstrate how he wanted to be and he couldn't do anything and U he kept trying he couldn't do anything and Creator finally took py on him he says okay I'll give you special
38:48 powers but you'll just be coyote you'll just be gray and uh but I'll give you these special powers you can be creative you can change things you if you get killed you'll be able to come back to life again but you'll be just like the human beings you'll have all their faults and desires and mistakes that human beings make you'll be just like them so he was
39:12 happy even when he was try to be qualified you know when you hear coyotes at night you know yip yip yip yip sounds like three or four coyotes out there there's only one coyote out there because coyote he can't talk straight so but he finally became qualified he got a name IA and so the meeting was just about to
39:36 break up and then grizly bear says well I want to have uh six months day six months night a little chipmunky heard that no no no one day one night that's all we need and uh they would argue 6 months day 6 months night no no no one day one night Creator told well you go over there and sit down whoever wins the argument when after this great change that's what we'll have so they went over
40:01 and they started arguing six months night six months day and Chip monkeys no no no his little tail go back and forth no no one day one night one day now one night that's all we need you're just lazy so they argue and arguing y Grizzly be you almost fall asleep he'd wake up and he'd start arguing six months day six months night chipm no no no one day one night one day one night finally Griz Barry Falls over he goes to sleep and
40:26 Chip monkey says I wanton the argument now we have one day one night so that's how uh we got one day one night after this great change because chipmunk won the argument and then U grizzer bberry wakes up and he looks around says what happened what happened oh you lost the argument we got one day one night now and he looks around for a chipmunk and he says where's
40:50 chipmunk and chipmunk says oh he's going to come after me so chipmunky starts running in grizzly bear right behind me Griz bear reaches out and scratches his back and makes stripes on chipmunk back so that's why chipmunk Got Stripes on his back because he got he won the argument and we got one day one night so these are the things that teach
41:13 us you know these coyote stories and I guess we got to why don't we take a few minutes for questions or answers if you have a question put your hand up I'll come to you with a microphone so we can all hear your question any questions at all come on all right let's thank him so much for coming and telling his
41:37 stories thank [Music]
41:56 you
42:26 e
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Alan Pinkham on Nez Perce Legend Times and Coyote Stories

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Alan Pinkham on Nez Perce Legend Times and Coyote Stories

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