Essay: Recurring Motifs in the Tales of the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest unit has several recurring motifs in its stories, but one that really jumps out is the creation of the world. Each culture has their take on how the earth was created, and the tribes of the Pacific Northwest are no different.

What's interesting about the creation stories from the Northwest is the use of animals in some of the versions. For example, in How Silver-Fox Created the World, Coyote and Silver Fox live in the heavens above the earth's water. One day, Silver-Fox decided to descend to the world beneath the sky and created an island. From there, the tale describes in more detail how Silver-Fox expanded the earth and how Coyote helped him. Animals played an important role in the tribal communities, so it makes sense that they had animals represent the spirits of the other realm.

Another tale that deals with creation is How Kemush Created the World. In this tale, the central figure is not an animal, but an old man. However, his method for creation has some similarities to the first creation story mentioned. Just like Silver-Fox was responsible for creating everything on the land, was the old man in this tale. One difference is that Silver-Fox added land to a realm of just water, whereas Kemush added vegetation and animals to the world where land already existed.

Finally, the story How Old Man Above Created the World, has both aspects of the previous stories in it. Like the first tale, the Old Man Above has to bore a hole into the sky to get to the earth below. Like the second story, the old man walks around the earth and creates plants, animals, and humans. In this version of creation, though, the Old Man Above makes a teepee to live in on the earth, and the teepee is Mount Shasta.

(Mount Shasta)