Reading Notes: Pacific Northwest

How Beaver Stole Fire Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon, by Katharine Berry Judson (1910):

Before there was man on land the trees and animals talked and walked around.

Only the pine trees had fire and would not share it.

One winter it was so cold the animals decided they needed to steal fire.

A beaver hid out and waited for a lit coal to roll down by him and he took it. The pine trees took off after him wanting the fire back. The beaver ran in a straight line and back and forth creating the shape of the Grande Ronde River.

The beaver shared the fire with other trees and now people can get fires by rubbing two together. 

Beaver. Peter Angelos, 2006. Flickr.

Why There Are No Snakes on Takhoma Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon, by Katharine Berry Judson (1910):

Tyhee Sahale became angry with people and told the medicine man to shoot his arrow into the cloud that hung above Takhoma. The medicine man did this over and over again until he made a chain from the cloud to the ground. 

The medicine man told his wife, children, and the good animals to climb up to the cloud. 

As he was climbing he saw the bad animals, snakes included, trying to climb up. He cut the rope and then it began to rain. It rained until all the bad animals died. 

Then they climbed down from the cloud and there were no more snakes.