Legends & Tales Of Mount St. Helens

The Bridge Of The Gods-Cascade Tribe Version

--Chuck Williams

Pg. 29-32

On the western side of the great sea lived two sons of the Great Spirit: Wy-east (Mt. Hood) and Pah-toe (Mt. Adams). The Great Spirit had shot two arrows into the air—one to the north of the Columbia, the other to the south—and told the brothers to settle where the arrows landed. After many years of living together happily, a beautiful woman mountain moved into the valley between the brothers. She fell in love with Wy-east, the smaller mountain-god, but liked to make him jealous by flirting with good-natured Pah-toe. Soon both brothers fell madly in love with her and began to quarrel with each other over matters of little importance. At first, they only growled at each other and stamped their feet, shaking the ground. Coyote tried to reason with the once-close brothers, but to no avail. The brothers then threw fire and rocks at each other, and the black smoke from their terrifying battle hid Sun, bringing darkness to Earth. Finally, they stopped to rest. When the smoke cleared away, their beautiful white coats had disappeared—and the landscape was devastated. The forest and the plants the people ate had burned; the animals had fled or been killed. The villages were also burned, and the people had fled or hid in caves. Worst of all, the brothers had shaken the ground so hard that a hole was broken through the mountain range between them. The great inland sea escaped through the hole, and the torrent enlarged it into a huge tunnel. During the darkness, the Beautiful Woman Mountain had hidden in a cave.

Coyote fetched the Great Spirit, who arrived just in time to stop the brothers from fighting again, this time over who was to blame for the disappearance of the woman mountain they had been so noisily courting. The Great Spirit was furious with them and decreed that the Beautiful Woman Mountain would remain hidden in the cave. He left the natural bridge that spanned what had become a huge river as a symbol of peace and so that the humans and the animals could still visit each other easily. The Great Spirit warned that if the brothers ever fought again, the Bridge of the Gods would be destroyed and the brothers forever separated. He also placed an old woman mountain, Loo-wit (Mount St. Helens), the keeper of the fire, by the bridge to guard it and remind the brothers of how transitory youthful beauty is.

Slowly the people returned to their homes, but there were only mud flats where the inland sea had been. Ash covered everything, making breathing difficult. The people were on the edge of starvation, so they looked for Coyote to help. When Coyote came up the river, they blamed him for their troubles. Coyote became angry and threatened to remove their mouths and to return them to their original condition. Like most people, however, they wanted to keep their blessings while blaming those who had blessed them. They finally apologized to Coyote.

The only solution, Coyote said, was to journey down the river to the sea and brings fish back to feed the people. Coyote chose six of the ablest men, and they set off in the best war-canoe, not knowing what to expect. When they approached the Bridge of the Gods, Coyote, who was sitting in the prow of the canoe, gave them a last chance to back out. They were all afraid of what evil spirit might await them in that dark tunnel, but they did not want to show fear before Coyote. The river, too, evidently was scared; it sped up as it entered the hole in the mountains. No sooner had the group entered total darkness than the canoe crashed into an island, and they were thrown onto a pile of driftwood. The canoe was safe, but the paddles, their provisions and one man were gone. Coyote was still with them, though. He took a fire starter from his hair and started a fire on the island. Soon the men were warm and new paddles were carved from driftwood.

The group swept on downstream aided by the light from the big fire. The tunnel was so large that they couldn't see the top. They could barely see one shoreline, where they found their missing companion clinging to a piece of driftwood. When he climbed into the canoe, it began to fill with water from a hole incurred in the wreck. Coyote came to the rescue again; he changed into a beaver and towed the canoe out of the tunnel and into the welcome sunlight so it could be patched.