Salishan oral narratives consist of the body of traditional narratives of the speakers of the

Salishan languages The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ag ...

, who inhabit

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada and in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Each of the many peoples in these groups have their own stories and each storyteller may interpret them in their own ways, but many of the stories of the Salish peoples are similar and share themes and characters, and share their historical origins in the proto-Salishan culture long ago. The earliest descriptions of the oral traditions of the Salishan peoples were the collections of Nuxalk (Bella Coola) mythology by anthropologist

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

Genres

Many Salishan peoples distinguish between two basic genres of narrative, one is traditional stories corresponding roughly to what is called myth in English and which takes place in a Myth Age before the arrival of the modern age, in which plants, animals and weather phenomena are anthropomorphized. The other type of stories includes historical accounts and "news" or informational stories. For the

Nlaka'pamux The Nlaka'pamux or Nlakapamuk ( ; ), also previously known as the ''Thompson'', ''Thompson River Salish'', ''Thompson Salish'', ''Thompson River Indians'' or ''Thompson River people'', and historically as the ''Klackarpun'', ''Haukamaugh'', ''Kni ...

of the Fraser Canyon- Nicola regions in British Columbia, the genre of traditional narrative is called ' whereas the informational narrative is called ''spíləẋm'', in Montana Salish (Flathead) the distinction is between ''sqʷlú(ṁt)'' and ''sṁiʔṁíy'', and other Salishan languages have similar pairs. One important difference between Salishan oral traditions and Western literature is that Salishan traditional narratives are not considered to be fictive, or to be the result of the creativity of the narrator, rather they are considered to convey real knowledge of the world as passed down from the elders. The storyteller also does not "own" the story, although the best storytellers do give the narratives a personal flavor. Rather the stories are considered to be pre-existing and to contain all the knowledge of the world. Demonstrating the significance of the traditional narratives, elder Joe Cullooyah of the Montana Salish stated that "Everything you need to know about life is in the Coyote stories — if you just listen carefully", and asked what happened to Coyote of the Coyote narratives, Cullooyah answered "You believe that Christ is coming back some day, right? Well, Coyote is coming back some day, too."

From the mythology of the Kalispel, an Interior Salish people

*In some stories from the Flathead storyteller Lassaw Redhorn and the

Kalispel The Pend d'Oreille ( ), also known as the Kalispel (), are Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau. Today many of them live in Montana and eastern Washington of the United States. The Kalispel peoples referred to their primary tribal range a ...

storyteller Domicie Michell the supreme deity is called Amotken, a kind, elderly man who lives alone in

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

. He created five women from five hairs from his head and asked them what they wanted to be. Each gave him a different answer: wickedness and cruelty, goodness, mother of the Earth, fire, water. Amotken did as they asked and declared that wickedness would rule Earth for a time, but goodness would win in the end.

From the traditions of the Skwxwumesh, a Coast Salish people

*In some stories told by Skwxwumesh storyteller Louis Miranda the Basket ogress ''qálqaliɫ'' was an ugly old woman/ogress that stole children and carried them away in her basket. *For a more extensive survey of Skwxwu7mesh oral traditions, please see History of the Squamish people#Oral history and History of the Squamish people#Stories.

From the traditions of the Sts'Ailes (Chehalis)

The Sts'Ailes, who live at Chehalis, British Columbia, have extensive traditions concerning the Sasquatch, whom they regard as another tribe and whom they continue to encounter into modern times. According to Sts'Ailes stories, the Sasquatch speak the Douglas language, i.e.

Stʼatʼimc The Statimc (), also known as the Lillooet (), St̓át̓imc, Stl'atl'imx (), etc., are an Interior Salish people located in the southern Coast Mountains and Fraser Canyon region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. Stati ...

, the version of St'at'imcets spoken at Port Douglas, at the head of

Harrison Lake Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres (95 mi²) in area. It is about 60 km (37 mi) in length and at its widest almost 9 km (5.6 mi) across. Its so ...

.''"Shouldn't Be Captured": Nothing Monstrous About Sasquatch Says Their Pal'', Alex McGillivray, ''Vancouver Sun'', May 25, 1957
/ref>

Notes

References

* *

External links

Salish Storyteller
cartoons of traditional stories with Salish sound files and English translation

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110718140046/http://pyramidmesa.netfirms.com/okanogan1.html Creation of the animal people: Okanagan creation myth* ttp://www.pitt.edu/~dash/animalindian.html#bearwoman The bear woman: Okanagan legend about a woman kidnapped by a grizzly bear* ttp://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/DirtyBoy-Okanagon.html Dirty boy: Okanagan legend about a woman who married the sunbr>''Beaver'', from the legend story ''Coyote's Winter Dance''
courtesy of the En'Owkin Centre, Royal British Columbia Museum's Living Landscapes website