SEA - 1 Bear and Raven Steal Fire

Long ago when the earth was new. It was a time of silent darkness,
when there was no light to illuminate across the land at the shores of
the Salish Sea. The people lived at the tide-line of Wy'luge, a great
body of water snaking it's way through the inlets and bays between the
two great mountains. They had lived there many long years, after the
great ice flows had retreated back to the land of the Wind. Huddled in
their lodges, covered with blankets of deer and goat who roamed the
forests. They sat in darkness waiting for the dawn to raise. For
there was no light of fire to illuminate their faces in the night, and
no heat to keep their lodges warm.

The people had remembered brighter days, when it seemed the sunlight
would go on for all time. Yet a darkness had settled into Wy'luge.
Both the sun and fire had been stolen by a great Siskiutl, (split two
headed sea-serpent) that lived at the mouth of the River. The people
of Wy'luge had grown too fat on their prosperity in times before,
taking little care of the world that surrounded them. They had
forgotten how to carve cedar canoes to go out to the waters to fish,
for the salmon came right to their lodges along the rivers edge. So
one day while all of the sententials of the clans were off in play at
a great potlatch, the Siskuitl had taken the Sun right out of the sky
and stolen the fire from their unprotected longhouse. This is how the
dark days came to the people due to their own carelessness. For they
had polluted their waters, and forgot to teach their young the old
ways. The Siskuitl began to eat all the salmon coming near the river,
thus no Salmon went beyond here to the place where the longhouses
stood. Since the people could not go out on the Sea, the grew very
hungry and week, eating only roots and sweat sap, without the strength
of the Meat of the Salmon Spirits.

In those days, the spirits of the world roamed and lived among the
people of the Salish Sea. They would change form to look like man,
during the evenings, but would return to the forest to take on their
wild form during the day. There was two that lived in a village near
the edge of a small river that flowed from the mountains near Tahoma.
These were Raven and Bear. Raven and Bear had been friends for a long
time, since they had been young. Since there was no day, they rarely
took their wild forms, and so began to lose spirits and only longed
for the earlier days of the sun. They both saw a suffering in people,
while some would not see it themselves. Knowing how they came to this,
they set out to the Sea to take the sun and the fire back from the
Siskiutl.

Bear and Raven knew that the Siskuitl could not take his fire out of
the box, in his home at the mouth of the river. Yet Siskiutl, loved
the taste of salmon smoked upon a cedar fire. He would lash is great
tail about in the deep waters of Wy'luge to create storms and winds
that would force the people of the Salish Sea into their Longhouses.
It was then that he would head to the Sandy beach there at the mouth
of the river, and smoke his salmon without worry of anyone noticing
him. So one such night as the winters came to the mountains about
Wy'luge, Siskiutl whipped his tail in a frenzy and created such a
storm. When wave after wave of rain and wind swept the people back to
their lodges, he emerged towards the fire-pits that lined the shore.

Bear and Raven waited at the edge of forests, changing into wild form
and watching for their moment when the Siskiutl was finished smoking
his salmon, lost in the joy of eating each juicy piece. At that
moment, Bear bolted out and put his great paw on the Serpant's tail,
keeping him from protecting the fire, while Raven Swept down and
grabbed an ember of fire from the still burning coals. Clutching them
in his craw, he flew higher, while his great white feathers were
turning to black as the smoke was fanned into flame. Burning his claws
hard black, he could not stand to carry the ember any more and dropped
it in the smoke hole of the Salish People's Longhouse. Thus giving
back fire to the people.

Mean while Bear struggled to keep hold of the Serpants Tale and the
great Siskiutl return to the Sea near a point of land called Alki. In
his furry, he tipped over the box containing the Sun, casting it out
along the shore, turning the sand to rocky stone at the waters edge.
Bear, seeing his moment reached out and threw the sun up in the sky,
bring light to the land once more. Yet the fire of the sun, also
singed his fir black, except for his brown muzzle that still had
salmon grease covering it.

Dawn rose across the waters of Wy'luge and the Salish Sea. The rains
of the Serpent, Siskiutl diminished and the people began to come out
of their longhouses, to see the new light.

Bear crept back in the forests. Only to come out and watch the people
from a distance in their wild form, while he began to relearn the old
ways that had long been lost in those dark days. Raven remained flying
about the people, always the trickster in their midst, watching that
the people were learning those old ways as well..

-- Adapted from a Salishan Tale

-- Jorj