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Legends, |
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 Teslin area |
The Aces:
There is an old Indians legend about the Aces; so old in fact that the oldest people in Teslin recall hearing it from their grandfathers. There are variations of the story depending whose clan you are a decendant of.
Here is one version as told by David Johnston:
Long ago there was a great flood. The waters of Teslin lake and the waters of the lakes all around rose higher and higher for four summers in a row. The Indian people were forced out of their homes and away from their hunting grounds by the rising water, so they decided to build a large raft of log poles.
On this raft they put all their food and firewood and all climbed aboard. For quite some time they drifted along with the rising water. Soon animals who were also in need of shelter came and climbed aboard. There were moose and caribou; bear and wolf; coyote and lynx; fox and rabbit and many, many more and not one harmed the other one.
Finally after many long days of waiting the waters came to reach the highest peak of the Aces so the people threw out an anchor and coiled a rope around the peak. When the waters began to subside and the raft came to rest on the top of the mountain, the people once again were on land and the animals too, spread out in search of food, always returning to the Aces for their shelter and protection. Ever since those days, the Aces have been called the foster mother of all the wild animals. Somewhere on the peak of "Lone Sheep" mountain lies the remains of the raft and the anchor.. (A History of the Settlement of Teslin P. 21)
The Teslin Graveyard and How Fox Point Got It's Name:
Here is a legendary account of how the place for the graveyard was chosen as told and recorded by Mrs. Virginia Smarch.
In the olden days the people used to migrate from place to place at different times of the year in search of food. As it happened this one group has spent the winter hunting and trapping at the north western end of the lake and because they were running low on supplies were returning to the cache of salmon near Nisutlin Bay.
One old woman was warned in a dream that something drastic would happen if they went back for the salmon. She begged with the people to try to get by on the food they had but they wouldn't listen to her. So they packed their belongings on moosehide toboggans and set out down the lake pulling the toboggans behind them because they had no horses or dogs for packing in those days. All this time the old woman was telling them "There will be signs, the first will be a lynx, the second a wolverine and the last one a fox. When we have seen all three signs we will all perish." But the people paid no attention to the old lady and kept moving down the lake.
They came by Deadman Creek and saw a lynx and the old woman begged. "Let's turn back", but no one listened to her. When they came to eight mile they saw a wolverine and again the woman pleaded. "Let's go back or we will all die." But still they pressed on. Then they came a few miles further and saw a fox running across the lake at the place that has since been named Fox Creek and Fox Point.
Still the old woman begged and pleaded to turn back and they paid no attention. Now this old woman told her granddaughter "If anything should happen to me, hang onto my belt; never let it go and it will bring you to safety.
So the people came to the bay and camped for the night amongst the big trees along the shore. In the morning someone went down to the waterhole in the ice and saw strange people strung out one behind the other at Rocky Point. He quickly ran back to camp to warn his people that the Telegraph Indians were coming to attack. In no time at all the Tlingits were surrounded and killed by the Telegraph Indians.
All except the grandchild of the old woman, who ran off through the bushes and came out on the opposite side of the point. She called out to the spirits four times and then a north wind came up erasing all her tracks. The Telegraph Indians followed her tracks to the very spot but then lost them and the girl escaped to tell the sad tale to other Tlingit Indians.
This is the end of this story but the beginning of another so may it suffice to say that it all happened about 100 years ago and human bones have been unearthed while digging graves at the cemetery." (Pp. 19-20) Excerpts from I'm Going to Tell You a Story by Mrs. Kitty Smith:
Naludi: Story of the Lowell Glacier:
This glacier's name is Naludi. This is the story of how it came across the river and made a lake.
One man lived way down there, Yok'dat(Yakatat) they call it, way down there. People lived at that place, near salt water. Klukshu River goes down to that place. From there, people came up to this Yukon. One old man is coming and a little boy about so big.
(When they got here, they met an old man, a Yukon Indian.)
That old man had a no hair on his head, nothing.The little boy who came from Yok'dat told him.
"Ah, that old man! The top of his head is just like the place gopher plays, a bare stump." That kid laughed at him.
The old man who was with him said:Don't say that. You don't know that old man. Why do you say that? That old man is your grandpa. When you're old your hair is going to be that way too."
Well, that old man comes from the Yukon, you know.
After that, They went back.
Summertime, that old(Yukon) man went to Naludi. He's medicine man, you know, big doctor. That ice was coming right down from the mountain. At the end of the ice, a creek came down. Right there, he sat down.
He said to himself, "What am I going to do?" His doctor talks to him. "You think I'm going to bring that glacier to this mountain? It's going to be flooded, that side."
His doctor told him, "You try it. It's going to come."
That old man lay down, right there. His doctor's working now on that glacier. It comes down, comes down...glacier...glacier...comes down...comes down...until it's all level with this mountain.
That's the first time(the glacier crossed) that Indian doctor did that.
After he did that (another time when it crossed the river) my grandma told me it was like that one time, in her time. All flooded again, that 1016(Haines Junction), that way. Talk about gopher's die! She said. Before, that glacier didn't do that. But after he did that, first time, from there it started. (The barrier was formed and broken several times).
That man stayed there on top that glacier until that water is filled up. Champagne landing, everywhere is all full with that water.
There's a water place shows that yet.
"All full now," his doctor said. "you know how far I'm going to clean them? Pretty near to the middle of the mountain all I'm going to wash down."
"Alright. Break it down now," He said. It broke down, that ice. Water goes now.
People were staying at a flat place where Champagne Creek(Alsek River) and Klukshu River(Tatshenshini River) meet. Some kind of coast Indian people. All died their people. All washed down to salt water. Just that one man saved, that one who told the boy not to make fun. That's the one he saved, that's all.
All cleaned right out. They say they saw water coming half way up the mountain.
That happened before my grandmother's time. But(in her time) that ice still goes, touches that mountain; that time the water was still full.
I've been there, Naludi. That's the one that broke.
It's a long time since that ice met that mountain.
When my grandmother was a little girl, she stayed at Dalton Post all the time. That's the time she said all the time they cook, they don't use cooking stick. They boil food. They don't let that soup run over too because there is danger in that ice. If that ice smells grease, he doesn't like it. Should be people just boil meat. (If he smells grease) that's the time he started.
Just goats and sheep there, no moose, no caribou.
There was a flood in my grandmother's time, though. But not as big as when the old man did that. It's after him. In his time that ice came just up to that mountain - that's why they called it Naludi, "Flat right there." Right there, there is a big creek coming, bigger than the Klukshu River. That creek came from the mountain.
That was before me, in my grandmother's time. Maybe I was just born then. August, they go to Kluane. Indians walk around like that. Kluane people, Big Lake people. They're friends together. They're going to Kluane, I guess. They stay there, come back. Flooded! Bear Creek is all full of water. They stay on the other side.
That's when one old lady told me, "Talk about gophers," she said, that flood. Lots of gophers there. No tree, I guess, just gravel, willows. Just a little while, that flood. That flood was just a little while, just to Bear Creek, then he broke down again. Dry. I don't think this time it does that for a long time." (PP. 87-88)
Birth of Crow:
One time there is a girl whose daddy is a very high man. They kept her in her bedroom all the time. Men try to marry her all the time but they say no, she's too good.
Crow wanted to be born. Wants to make the world. So he made himself into a pine needle. A slave always brings water to that girl. One time he brings water with pine needle in it. She turns it down. Makes him get fresh water. He brings it again. Again pine needle there. Four times he brings water and each time it's there. Finally, she gives up. She spits that pine needle out and drank the water. But it blew in her mouth and she swallowed it. Soon she's pregnant.
Her mother and daddy are mad. Her mother asks her, "Who's that father?"
"No, I never know a man", she says.That baby starts to grow fast. That girl's father had the sun, moon, stars, daylight, hanging in his house. He's the only one has them. The world was all dark, all the time. The child begged for them to play with.
Finally the father gives his grandchild sun to play with. He rolls it around. He plays with it, laughs, had lots of fun. Then he rolls it to the door and out it goes. "Oh!" he cries. He just pretends. He cries because that sun is lost.
"Give me moon to play with." They say no at first. Like now if baby asks for sun, moon, you say, "That's your grandfather's fire." Finally, they give it to him.
One by one they give him sun, moon, stars, daylight. He loses them all.
"Where does she get that child from? He loses everything, " her father says.
Then Crow disappears. Has those things with him in a box.
He walks around. Comes to river. Lots of animals are there - fox, wolf, wolverine, mink, rabbit. Everybody's fishing. That time animals all talk like people talk now. The world is dark.
"Give me fish", Crow says.
No one pay any attention.
"Give me fish or I bring daylight."
They laugh at him.
He's holding a box - starts to open it and lets one ray out. Then they pay attention. He opens box a bit more. They're scared. Finally he broke that daylight box and throws it out. Those animals scatter, hide in bush and turn into animals like now. Then the sun, moon, stars, daylight come out.
"Go to the skies," Crow says. "Now no one man owns it," he says. "It will be for everyone."
He's right, what he says, that Crow.
After Crow made the world he sees that sea lion owned the only island in the world. The rest was water. He's only one with land. The whole place was ocean.
Crow rests on a piece of log. He's tired. He sees sea lion with that little island just for himself. He wants land too.
So he stole sea lion's kid.
"Give back that kid," said sea lion.
"Give me beach - some sand", says Crow. So the sea lion gave him sand. You know how sand in water floats? Crow threw that sand around the ocean.
"Be world", he tells it. And it became the world.
After that he walks around, flies around all alone. He's tired. He's lonely. He needs people. He took poplar tree bark. You know how it's thick? He carved it. Then he breathed into it.
"Live", he said. And he made person. He made Crow and Wolf too. At first they can't talk to each other. Crow man and woman are shy with each other - look away. Wolf people same way.
"This is no good", he said. So he changed that. He made Crow man sit with Wolf woman and he made Wolf man sit with Crow woman. So Crow must marry Wolf and Wolf must marry Crow.
That's how the world began." (Pp. 12-15)
| Little Salmon/ Carmacks Area |
(Excerpts from Study of Culture and Land Use for the Little Salmon Carmacks Area by Ruth Gotthardt on February 20, 1986.)
How Bear Got a Short Tail:
One day the bear asked the fox why he's got a long tail like that. The fox said that he can catch a lot of fish that way, with his tail, and he showed him how by putting his tail through the ice. When the bear tried that he froze his tail, so that now bears only have short tails.(Wilfred Charlie and Walton Washpan)"(Study of Culture and Land Use, P. 97)
Eagle Rock:
There are stories about a giant frog living in a cave in Eagle Rock. If you make any noise going past on the river, a big wind will come up. Children used to be hidden under tarps and told to be quiet for about a mile up river and downriver of the Rock. Going by a big bluff(Morris Bluff?), downriver of Carmacks, you have to be quiet too. (May Roberts)" (P. 91)
Extinct Animals:
Mammoths or elephants used to live in Yukon. When the mammoth hollered, they say that people would fall down from shock.
One well-known story tells about a mammoth at Frenchman Lake that killed some people there, on the north end. On the other end of the lake, one old man stayed with lots of kids, hunting rabbit. His oldest daughter was married to the son of the people who were camped on the north end of Frenchman. He had gone to visit his family when the mammoth came and killed them all. The girl went looking for her husband and saw the mammoth. She ran back and told her brother. They both saw the mammoth on the trail to their camp, close by, and they ran. They had no time to tell their brothers or sisters who were staying in the tents in camp. The mammoth came and killed everyone there. It then put them back in their blankets so it looked like they were sleeping. Then the Mammoth went inside to sleep too.
The girl and her brother met up with their father coming back from trapping and told him what happened. The old man cut a long pole and sharpened one end really sharp. Then he went to the camp with his son. He told his daughter to stay up hill and watch for a smoke signal, that would say that everything was alright.
When the old man got to camp, everything was real quiet. He climbed on top of the tent with his spear and told his son to run around the tent so that the mammoth would chase him. When the boy got tired, he jumped up on the tent with his father. The mammoth tried to jump up too, but the old man speared him then. Then he jumped down and cut him open before he could get up again. (Lee Washpan)"(Pp. 93-94)
Mountain Men:
Mountain Men are small, little people. One story tells of a girl who stayed with a Mountain Man. There were maybe five camps together at one place, but there was no food around. A girl went out walking and found a moose gut with lots of fat on it. She brought it back and shared it so that everyone got some. Her husband was mad and beat her because he thought that some other man gave it to her.
Then everyone left that place, but the girl stayed there alone. One day, she found two moose outside her tent. Later lynx and other kinds of skin showed up. She dried meat and made clothes. One morning she woke up and found a Mountain Man beside her in the tent. She got scared, but the mountain man was really kind and never got mad. They stayed there together, and had a little baby.
Pretty soon, people come back to the camp. The girl's brother comes ahead looking for her. The girl's husband comes too. The Mountain Man and the girl have lots of meat which they share with everyone. Only tell people not to cut fresh bone. People did anyway, and when the Mountain Man found out, he got really mad. Said you have to smoke that kind of bone first.
The Mountain Man gave the girl a string to sew onto her moccasins. Then told her that he was taking their son and going back to his people. The girl cried because she didn't want him to go. He wants her to follow, though, that's why he gave her that string for her moccasins.
The girl followed him then until they reached a big rock. He went inside the rock, but she couldn't follow there. She took a big stick then and hit the rock so it opened for her. The Mountain Man was waiting inside for her, and he's smiling. There are lots of other people there too- all kind people. She stayed with them.
Sometimes you see the tracks of Mountain People - like little kids tracks. Don't wear Moccasins(?). If you see these tracks, you'll get lucky. (Kitty Blackjack)" (Pp.95-96)
For more legends and stories, see the Bibliography in Who We Are
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Teslin Area