Elwha Watershed Information Resource
Stories from Our Ancestors
Here are a few Elwha Klallam Stories:
Nahkeeta
Many years have passed since Nahkeeta, a beautiful maiden, lived in the Northern foothills of what are now known as the Olympic Mountains. Nahkeeta was a gentle girl greatly loved by her people. She was as pretty and as graceful as the maidenhair ferns which grew in the forest. Her voice was as cheerful and musical as the stream which flowed from the waterfall not far from her home. Her people were Klallams. They got most of their food from the salt water and rivers.
In the summer, after the salmon had been dried and stored for winter use, the women gathered berries near the edge of the forest. In the fall, they went to openings in the forest to gather currants and roots and tiger lily bulbs. They almost never went back into the deep woods. One day, Nahkeeta was gathering berries with her mom and sisters. She wandered back into the woods, enjoying the carpets of ferns, the moss wrapped logs, the moss draped trees, and the yellow-green sunlight that just shimmers through the forest. After a while she realized that she wandered too far. When she turned around to go back, she found that she was lost. She called to her mother and sisters, but she knew that her voice was lost in the bigness and tallness of the forest. She tried to retrace her steps. Slowly the yellow green sunlight of the forest faded. Darkness came, Nahkeeta struggled on, often climbing over fallen logs and getting tangled with the vines and ferns and small trees that grew from the old moss covered trunks. At last, too weary and frightened to go farther, she dropped down on the moss beside a log and fell asleep.
The next day her people searched for her, calling, "Nahkeeta" over and over again. There was no answer but the song of the wind in the treetops and the murmur of the mountain streams. For three days her people looked for her. On the fourth day someone stumbled over a moss covered log, beside it lay Nahkeeta's body. Some wild animal had killed her. Grief filled the hearts of Nahkeeta's people as they buried her body in a beautiful valley in the forest. For days, mournful chants and the sad wailing of women filled the air. Now the Changer was witnessing this sad event. His heart was touched by the emotion shown by the people. One day when the people arose, they were surprised to see a beautiful little lake, its blue green waters surrounded by white barked alders. The lake covered the place where Nahkeeta was buried.
The Strong People
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One day there was a big gathering at Elwha. They ate salmon, clams, wild berries and lots of good things from nature. They had a contest to see who was the strongest. They decided to see who could lift the log to the top of a big house that they were building. "Who can lift this big log?" they asked. All of the other tribes tried to lift the log. Each Tribe chose their strongest men, but none could lift the big log. Then it was time for the mighty Klallams. They remembered that logs float in water, so they rolled the big log into the water. Then, their strongest young men walked out into the water until it was up to their shoulders. Then they let the log float onto their shoulders and walked out of the water carrying the log on their shoulders. When they reached the Longhouse, everyone shouted at the same time "Shashume, Shashume, Shashume!" On the third time they all lifted it up to the top. All of the other tribes thought the Mighty Klallams must be very strong to put the log up so high and so smart to use the water to first get the log onto their shoulders. They all shouted "Klallam, Klallam!", which means "Strong People!"
That was how the Klallam people received their name.
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| For the Lower Elwha Health Clinic expansion, Health Director Cecile Greenway purchased artwork from local artists and tribal members. This button blanket was made by Serena Antioquia and Garnet V. Charles. It tells the story of how the Klallams got their names. |
Mucus Boy*
A mother had seven boys and one girl. One day the sister got lost and one by one the brothers disappeared in their attempts to find her. The mother cried so hard that a baby was made of her mucus pooling on the ground. He grew up and went into the woods, where he found the bodies of his brothers. He found that his sister was a prisoner, married to a mountain lion. When the lion hunted, he stuck her to a pitchy stump so she couldn't escape. The sister had a baby that was two-faced. All the brothers came to rescue the sister, but she warned them to leave, that the lion would kill them. When the lion returned, the two-faced child would tell that a brother had come. The lion would hunt down the brother and tear out his heart. When Mucus Boy came he made sure he had stones covering his heart, so when the lion attacked, his nails got bent and Mucus Boy killed him. He took his brothers hearts back and brought them back to life. The brothers and sister all went back home. One day the two-faced child got angry at the one who had saved them (Mucus Boy). The child called him names and finally said, "Mucus." The man covered his face, climbed to the sky, and was never seen again.
*This is one of many versions of this story.