Legend of Face Rock
TreeHuggerz.com
Where environmental awareness and recycling meet frugal living.
LEGEND OF FACE ROCK
The legend is, for the most part, about Meeashta. But not as much about her as it is about perfect love, honor, tradition, and perfect tragedy. But mostly, is about love and its power through time.
This legend was told to me by my grandmother Ruby Geneva (Gurney) Culbertson and was told to me by her when I was very young. It was told to her when she was young, by an very old Teutunni Indian woman at Reston Valley, east of Bandon about 50 miles and in the Coast Range near Tenmile, Oregon.
That Teutunni woman was very old then, and it was told to her by her mother, and as far as I know, I am the only one that still knows this version of the story. But now, you know it as well.
I had to write it down so that it will not die.
And the Legend begins . . .
Many years before the whites, the Coquille and the Teutunni had arguments.
Not blood battles, but harassments that were escalating. Many thought they would one day get out of hand. Everyone knew that they would one day war.
One night in a dream, the two chiefs of the tribes had the same dream. A dream of inspired wisdom, a way to end the problem, before it was a problem. They dreamt the dream the same night, and at the same time, and met the next day to discuss it.
The solution was difficult but wise. They would trade children and raise each others children as their own. The two tribes would become clans of the same blood.. No one would war on their own family.
Some Teutunni children would live with the Coquille, and some of the Coquille would live with the Teutunni.
There would not be war. There would not be hostility or petty arguments, and they would be blood family to insure it.
An infant Teutunni girl, Klamasheea, came to live with a Coquille family, and this family had an infant soon called Skumawas. And they were to live in the same longhouse, and to grow together. They were soul mates from the first moment.
Klamasheea and Skumawas loved each other before they could even express it, and the tribes both loved and valued each of them. The tribe respected the intense love that existed between these two children.
When the two met the age of 14 summers, they were wed. But, not to each other. They had been betrothed to others at an early age, and before the love between them had been seen.
It almost broke their young hearts and spirits, but they honored traditions of the tribe, and they honored their parents wishes. They would wed whom they were told, and their betrothed were honorable as well, so it was not that bad.
Klamasheea and Skumawas were married in a double ceremony on the same day, and at the same time by agreement, and were wed under the same summers moon.
Everyone in the Coquille and Teutunni camps attended the ceremony and honored this new couple. The two tribes knew that it had to be that way, and that night, there was a great feast and dances under the moon and into the next sunrise.
As luck, and a little planning, would have it, the tribe pitched in together and built them adjacent longhouses, near their parents.
On the ninth moon of the following year, there were two children born in the Coquille camp at the creek that met the sea south of the Coquille River. And, as you would expect, they were a boy and a girl. A son to Klamasheea and a daughter to Skumawas. The two children were named and presented to the world the night of their births and given the names Teenatsus (the son), and Meeashta (the girl). They were born the same day, and the same hour, and under the same golden moon.
The two children fell in love with each other immediately, and from the very start, before they could even express it.
From the very moment of their births, they were meant for each other. Everyone knew it. And at the end of their tenth year, they were betrothed to each other. And all was beyond just perfect.
In the second season of their 14th year, the two that were as one, were wed. And there was great feasting, and dancing under that springtime moon. Dancing lasted into the rising sun the next morning. And all in the Coquille and Teutunni camps were pleased. Great gifts were exchanged and the bride and groom were taken to their new longhouse, built by the tribe between their parents houses, to begin their new life together.
On a day like today, the man who was a boy the day before, Teenatsus, went for a walk in the mountains and the forest to find his guide.
On his walk in the Weehaut Mountains, late in the morning, Teenatsus rested on a rock and listened for his guide to call him.
As he sat, he could faintly smell wood smoke on the wind and he wondered who was camped so far from the shoreline this early in the year. He decided to investigate the smoke and see
After following the smoke thru the forest, he came upon a small clearing, with a large smoldering snag in the middle of it.
As he went closer to the burning tree, he found where the top of the tree had fallen from a bolt of fire during a lightning storm the night before.
Under the tree top was a dead mother bobcat.
Teenatsus looked the mother cat over and saw that she was nursing young ones somewhere. So he decided to see if he could find them, since he knew they could not survive without her if they were still nursing.
He sat down by the mother cat and asked her spirit to show the kittens to him. But there was nothing.
And then he promised to her spirit that he would not harm the kits. And that he would raise them for her as they needed to be raised, and that they would be valued by the tribe, as long a his words were good.
At that precise moment, three young bobcat kits came out of their den under the burning tree, and came to where the mother cat lay. They sniffed her body and then sat down near her, looking at the man, Teenatsus.
And in a dream, they asked if he was to take care of them now, and for all seasons.
And the man said "Yes", that he would take care of them to the end of their destinies. Teenatsus had promised their mother that he would do so, if she would ask them to come out to him.
So, after putting the mother cats body into the den under the smoldering tree, he scooped up the three kits, and carried them down the mountains to the coast and to his home. To the Coquille village, and to his new wife, Meeashta.
These kittens would be a wedding gift to her. He knew she loved all animals. She loved these three kits as if they were her children. And even gave them names. Names that time has forgotten.
And the kittens immediately responded to her heart, and the tribe began to love them too. All the tribe laughed at their kitten funny business, and pretended to be mad at their cat mischievousness.
Where ever Teenatsus or Meeashta were, there was a kitten nearby. The kittens were always watching out for their Coquille parents. They were shadows attached at the heart to their human patents.
And, each day, the kits would make the rounds to visit every longhouse and eat the generous offers of smoked salmon and venison that the people would gladly give to them. The kits ate very well.
Late in the season of the next year's salmon run, there was a large potlatch of the coast tribes at the great central bay, at a place the whites now call Marshfield.
Many honored guests were on their way to the village that day, and everyone was working hard at making the camp ready for their guests. And on that day, the kits were busy directing everything from the building of the fire pit, selection of the fire logs, and the placement of the stones around the fire. They even sampled the salmon and elk meats to make sure they were of acceptable quality and ready for their guests.
That night, the gusts from the valley and upper coast arrived. First to arrive were the Teutunni from the valleys of the Umpqua. And then the Siuslaw, and the Siltcoos, some Hopa from the south, and a few Siletts as well.
Each tribe brought their best salmon slabs and dried and fresh kill elk and deer. The Coquille brought baskets and baskets of abalone, clam, and mussel which were baked on beds of hot rocks and sea kelp. The Teutunni brought elk and berries, wild plum, and camas bulbs for baking. Everyone brought something.
The Coquille welcomed their Teutunni brothers and sisters especially as all were family. Many hugs and gifts were exchanged. All looked forward to the nights feast, dances, gifts and stories.
Just as the meal was finished, and the stories of family and hunt had begun, a runner from the Teutunni camp at Reston Valley arrived out of breath and told them all that a raiding party of Rouge, Modoc, and Klamath, had raided the Teutunni camp at Reston and had stolen many children and killed and hacked many old people and young as well.
Those people were evil. They would murder the old and steal children, and they valued nothing. All the able men of the tribes had decided to go find the raiding party, and war on them, and get back the children stolen in the raid.
All the visiting coast tribes decided that they would join the party and go help their freinds recover their children. And the wonderful feast and potlatch was not a war party preparing to go to war on the Rouge, Modoc, and Klamath. They would leave at sunrise.
That night, hunting stories became war and battle stories. Songs of great fish and large antlered elk gave way to tales of great warriors and heroic deeds. The old men told of things they had seen in their day, and of songs for dead and missing ancestors. Tomorrow, war would be the job at hand.
Teenatsus longed to have stories of bravery of his own. He wanted songs to be song of him too. He wanted to have his own songs to sing and his own stories to tell at the fire.
Teenatsus listened to the stories and songs of the old men and saw the enthusiasm in the faces of the young men, and saw the fear in the eyes of the children and of the women.
By the light of that nights bonfire, he saw the fear in Meeashta's eyes. Her tears were heavy on her cheeks as the fire blazed and words of war flew like gulls on the beach.
He told Meeashta he was going to make her proud of him, and that there would be songs of him and she cried. He asked her what was wrong and she told him that she feared that his life would end, and she would be alone. And more of her tears fell.
The kittens came to her to console her. She told him that "he had to come back", and she cried some more.
Teenatsus was 15 years, and so was Meeashta, but he laughed at her, and called her a child for crying and carrying on so. He laughed at her, but put his arms around her and held her very tightly, not admitting his fears to her.
"I will return to you and my family with great stories to tell to our children!" He said, looking at the kittens and then stooped to pet them all.
Then he stood again, "I promise I will return you to my dear child Meeashta!" Then he hugged her again saying, "I promise to return to you, and you will be proud of the songs that will be sung for us."
In the real world, if a person give you a thing, you must give them a similar thing in return. That is the way of it. This maintains balance.
Since Teenatsus had given her this promise return to his family, and since he was an honorable man, and she an honorable woman, she would give him a promise.
"My husband, Teenatsus, if you do not return to me, I will swim to the sunset and turn to stone. I promise this!" She said looking up into his face with full tears filling her eyes.
Teenatsus laughed at her silliness again and hugged her one more time.
Teenatsus set out for the valley with all the other warriors before the sunrose the next morning, kissing Meeashta on the cheek before leaving the warmth of the longhouse. Even the kits came to say good bye and to get picked up and held in a warm goodbye hug.
And all to soon, it was time to leave and find the Rogue and Modoc. To recover their family members and put vengeance on those that did this crime.
Moments after the men had left the camp and the quiet of the camp was drenched in the crying and tears of wives, mothers and small children.
Meeashta sat on the floor of her longhouse and gathered her kits to her side and spoke to them. "Be my silent eyes and ears. Go with the men my children, and bring word back of how it goes and how my husband is doing. Watch out for him. But, keep out of sight. Don't let them see you."
And in a heartbeat, they were out the door, and silently disappearing into the night and then onto the trail the men had taken into the valley.
Two moons had passed when one of the kits returned. It returned in the middle of the night and curled up to sleep next to Meeashta.
In his dreams, the cat told Meeashta that Teenatsus and the other men were all fine and that they had caught up with the raiding party just two days walk from the Teutunni camp and as the sun rose that morning, they attacked, killing them all and disfiguring the bodies. They had destroyed them utterly to the last man.
Meeashta's husband had fought well and killed many warriors, saved many children. He had fought well and had counted cuu on the enemy, the living and the dead.
Meeashta was quick to spread the word to the rest in the camp and runners were sent out to the other tribes that had men on the rescue party.
That night songs were sung at campfires all up and down the coast. Many songs were sung, and a feast prepared to celebrate the victory.
Still, even with the good news, Meeashta was worried that something was wrong. That her man would not return and in a dream that night, she sent her love to him. Knowing that he would hear her and feel her kisses.
Four moons more passed when the second of the kits returned to Meeashta and slept at her feet, speaking to her in a dream he told her of a great battle on the main Rogue camp and the total destruction of that camp. And that her husband was a true warrior and the tribe should write songs of him and of all the others.
Again, the fires were lit and a feast prepared. There were dances and songs all through the night as mothers and wives praised the strength and courage of their men.
Six more moons pass when the third bobcat returns and he too sleeps at Meeashta's feet. And in his dream tells her that her husband is dead, killed in a midnight ambush on Rouge camp near a flat topped mountain. Many warriors had been killed and injured and that the survivors were on their way home. Meeashta's father Skumawas, was leading them home.
Meeashta awoke and sat up straight in her hides, eyes wide and filled with tears. She quickly hurried to her mothers lodge and told her that the cat had given her news. Then hurried to Teenatsus' mothers lodge to tell them. The news was not good.
The word spread quickly in the village and there was much crying and wailing. Sobs and sighs filled the village as the word spread. Runners went out to the other tribes to share the awful news.
All mourned the killed and injured that night. And wrote songs thru the night to honor the survivors and the dead. They sang all thru the next days sun, and thru that days night. They sang the to the tribe, in honor and sang their songs to the wind.
On that second day, Meeashta gave her leathers and baskets to her sisters, and takes her husbands leathers and carvings to his mothers lodge. Klamasheea was beside herself in grief. But hugged and kissed Meeashta, trying to console her for the lost love.
At the end of the day, when the sun was going to it rest, Meeashta picked up each kit, one at a time, hugged them and told them of her love for them. She sat each down on the sandy beach and sang one last song for her warrior brave, for her husband. A song for her love that would not return.
As the sun almost touched the horizon, she waded to the edge of the surf and faced the setting sun.
"A promise made is a promise kept." she said to the sky. "Our fates are fixed."
Then she added in as soft a voice as was ever used "I will wait here for my love to return. And will not leave this spot till he does."
Then Meeashta wades out into the sea, to the setting sun, and turns her face up to the sky, to wait for Teenatsus, her love. And suddenly she turns to stone.
As soon as the kits saw their mother turn to stone, they swam out to wait with her, and to protect her as she waits. Then they turned to stone too.
And to this day, the kits also wait and are still nearby.
Footnotes:
Coquille = kuu-Kwil, Indian tribal name from the south central Oregon coast.
Teutunni = tu-Tunee, Indian tribal name, inland territory east of Coquille and in the western part of the Umpqua Valleys
Klamasheea = klam-Awsh-e-aw, means "half closed eyes" (Coquille)
Skumawas = Skuma-was, means "one who drinks a lot of soup" (Coquille)
Teenatsus = Tee-not-sus, means "great singer of songs" (Teutunni)
Meeashta = mee-Awsh-ta, means "stands in cold water" (Teutunni)
Copyright 2004-2011 TreeHuggerz.com. All Rights Reserved.
Legend of Face Rock as told by RS Lawrence, 1/2000
Photo taken by RS Lawrence, Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved
Inn at Face Rock
