Legends & Tales Of Mount St. Helens

Seatco Of Bandon Rock

--Ella E. Clark

Pg. 124-126

This legend was told many years ago by Old Indian Mary, a Coquille. It explains some curious rock formations along the Oregon Coast, near Bandon, at the mouth of the Coquille River.

The word potlatch, coming from a Nootka word meaning "giving," passed from the Chinook Jargon into the speech of all tribes of the Pacific Northwest.

Seatco, evil spirit of the ocean, caused the storms that blew up and down the coast. He killed fish and threw them on the beach. Sometimes he swallowed canoes and fishermen. The coastal people feared him and tried not to anger him.

The mountain tribes did not know Seatco, and so did not fear him. Whenever they came down to the coast to trade or to attend potlatches, they brought with them their families, horses, and dogs; the children brought their pets.

One summer, four chiefs of the coast Indians held a big potlatch in honor of Siskiyou, powerful chief of a mountain tribe. The four tribes planned a big feast, because they wanted to show their guests how prosperous the coastal tribes were. The potlatch would be held on the beach, near the mouth of the Coquille River.

For days, the people were busy preparing for the feast. The women and girls dug great numbers of clams and mussels and prepared them for steaming beneath sea moss and myrtle leaves. Hunters brought in a dozen elk and several deer. Many salmon were made ready for roasting on spits over driftwood fires. Huckleberries were heaped on cedar-bark trays. When runners announced that Chief Siskiyou and his people were a day's journey away, the roasting and steaming began.

The chief brought with him his beautiful young daughter, and they camped on the potlatch grounds. The daughter, Ewauna, had her pets with her—her dog and a basket of baby raccoons. The girl had never before seen the ocean. All day long, she and her dog, Komax, raced along the beach, excited by the breaking of the waves.

People of the village warned her, "Don't go alone on the bluff. Seatco might see you and take you."

But Ewauna laughed at their warning.

By the morning of the second day all the guests had arrived, and the great feast began. The four chiefs, dressed in their ceremonial robes, welcomed their guest, and spoke in praise of the great Chief Siskiyou. All day the host and guest feasted. That night they slept where they had eaten.

When all was quiet in the camp, the great chief's daughter, taking her dog and her basket of raccoons with her, slipped away to the beach. She ran and danced along the shore, singing a song to the moon, which hung low over the ocean. She danced nearer and nearer the water, into the silver path. Then she dropped her basket on the beach, told her dog to guard her little pets, and ran into the surf.

She would swim towards the moon, following the silver trail. Her dog barked a warning, but she swam on and on, far from shore. Suddenly a black hand passed across the moon, and she was seized by a creature that came out of the water. Seatco claimed her as his own and started towards his cliff with her.

The dog rushed to rescue her, carrying the basket of raccoons with him. He dropped the basket and sank his teeth into the demon's hand. Roaring with pain and anger, Seatco grabbed the dog and the basket and hurled them down the beach. He held the girl close to him, trying to make her look into his eyes. But she turned her face away and looked at the moon. She remembered that Seatco's power lay in his eyes.

Next morning the chief missed his daughter. He and his hosts rushed to the beach. The tide was out. The girl was lying on the wet sand, her beautiful face looking up at the sky. Nearby, her dog stood as if barking. A little west of them were the scattered raccoons and the empty basket. All had been turned to stone.

On a large rock near the shore sits Seatco, still trying to catch the eye of the maiden. He too has been changed to stone.

***

Note:

*Seatco is also called Seatka in the newer stories of the Bandon Face Rock.

*Many 'newer' versions of this story had turned Ewauna's Racoons into kittens, to favor a western audience.