8000 Year Old Memories in Oregon? April 15, 2014
Author: Beach Combing | in : Prehistoric , trackback
***Dedicated to Wade***
By happy chance I recently came across two different references to Crater Lake (Oregon). The most intriguing, given this blog’s longstanding coverage of oral transmission, is a memory (?) of the lake’s creation.
Let’s start with the geology of the region: about 8000 years ago Mount Mazma erupted and created a caldera here that over time filled with rainwater.
As to the legends…
A long time ago, so long ago that you cannot count it, the white man ran wild in the woods and my people lived in rock-built houses. In that time long ago, before the stars fell, the spirits of the earth and the sky, the spirits of the sea and the mountains often came and talked with my people.
The tale, included in Ella Elizabeth Clark’s Indian Legends of the Pacific North West involves a serious disagreement between the Chief of the Above World and the Chief of the Below World.
In a voice like thunder, [the Chief of the Below World] swore that he would have revenge on the people of Loha, that he would destroy them with the Curse of Fire. Raging and thundering, he rushed up through the opening and stood upon the top of the mountain. Then he saw the face of the Chief of the Above World shining among the stars that surround his home. Slowly the mighty form of that chief descended from the sky and stood on the top of Mount Shasta. From their mountaintops the two spirit chiefs began a furious battle. In a short time all the spirits of the earth and sky took part in the battle. Mountains shook and crumbled.Red-hot rocks as large as the hills hurtled through the skies. Burning ash fell like rain. The Chief of the Below World spewed fire from his mouth. Like an ocean of flame it devoured the forests on the mountains and in the valleys. On and on the Curse of Fire swept until it reached the homes of the people. Fleeing in terror before it, the people found refuge in the waters of Klamath Lake. Mothers stood there holding their babies in their arms and praying that the awful war might end. Men prayed to the Chief of the Above World to save them from destruction by the Curse of Fire.
At this point two medicine men decide to sacrifice themselves for the good of the people.
On that cliff stood the angry Chief of the Below World. There the medicine men paused for a moment, watching the flames and smoke coming up through the opening. Then they lifted their burning torches high above their heads and jumped into the fiery pit. The great Sahale Tyee, the Chief of the Above World, standing on Mount Shasta, saw the brave deed of the medicine men. He saw that it was good. Once more the mountains shook. Once more the earth trembled on its foundations. This time the Chief of the Below World was driven into his home, and the top of the mountain fell upon him. When the morning sun rose, the high mountain was gone. The mountain which the Chief of the Below World had called his own no longer towered near Mount Shasta. Then rain fell. For many years, rain fell in torrents and filled the great hole that was made when the mountain fell upon the Chief of the Below World. The Curse of Fire was lifted. Peace and quiet covered the earth. Never again did the Chief of the Below World come up from his home. Never again did his voice frighten the people.
How do we even start to explain this apparent correspondence between legend and a geological event (eight thousand years before)?
The legend was allegedly collected in 1865 by a nineteen-year-old soldier, William M. Colvig. He spoke near the lake to Chief Lalek, then eighty, though who gives a damn about a generation more or a generation less when we are speaking about three hundred generations? ‘Later, Mr. Colvig heard the same legend from other old men of the Klamath tribe, told with some variations.’ Colvig had picked up ‘Chinook jargon’ in his childhood so the story was apparently told in Lalek’s language.
As I find it very hard to believe in anything surviving in oral tradition over thousands of year (see a recent post on a similar instance from Australia) is there anyway to undermine this apparent correspondence.
For example, was there volcanic activity in the Pacific North West more generally in the nineteenth century? There most certainly was. Mount Hood for example erupted in the late eighteenth century, though not perhaps on the scale described here. Then, both settlers and Indians presumably understood that Crater Lake was not a true lake fed by rivers and streams. Would either party have been able to deduce what created the caldera? Late nineteenth-century geologists (and general geological knowledge was much more common in the nineteenth century than today) would have reached for a volcanic explanation. As to the name, Crater Lake, it was coined in 1869.
Other thoughts: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
Reading this again the volcanic details just seem too good to be true!
24 April 2014: Mike Dash writes in with this cracker, I was at Crater Lake last summer – it’s remote and hard to get to, but the experience, should you ever have the chance to visit, is unforgettable. My interest in the lake was not in the Klamath legends but a more recent peculiarity: the old man of the lake. thanks Mike!
28 May 2014: Leif writes in ‘Regarding your (and Wade’s) 15 April post on the Mount Mazama legend: When I was a boy, I could see Mt. Shasta from my Grandfather’s farm- a distance of about 200km. Visited Crater Lake twice- the last time nearly 50 years ago- and remember hearing the Indian legend about the war of the gods and Mt. Mazama’s collapse. You discuss two possible origins for the legend: oral tradition and after-the-fact deduction. The latter is entirely possible. There are three volcanos in the region, the Indians were no doubt familiar with eruptions, and Crater Lake looks like a mountain that blew up.But could the legend possibly be an oral tradition? One might not be able to prove it, but one might well be able to disprove it. First, the region would have to be occupied at the time of the eruption– about 7,700 years ago, and occupation would have to be more or less continuous. [1] As the area is quite isolated, one cannot take this for granted. Second, the legend implies a more or less simultaneous eruption of Mt. Mazama and Mt. Shasta: ‘From their mountaintops the two chiefs began a furious battle. In a short time, all the spirits of the earth and sky took part in the battle.’ [2] (The following web sources aren’t definitive, but simply the best this lay reader can find.) The first point seems to check out. Chief Lalek was a Klamath Indian. [2] An archaeological paper from 1948 reports occupation beginning ’10 to 14 thousand years ago’, well before the eruption. It also indicates a good chance of continuous occupation since the time of the eruption. [3] The second point- simultaneous eruption of two volcanos- doesn’t hold up as well. Volcano discovery lists Shasta’s historic eruptions as 4050 BC (?), 6650 BC (?).[4] The question marks indicate a rather broad margin of error, but neither date is particularily close to the 5,700 BC date of the Mt. Mazama explosion. Still, it’s likely there is some oral tradition here. How could the Klamath Indians NOT remember a catastrophe of Biblical proportions when the landscape itself provides such a spectacular reminder? The ‘war between the gods’ motif could have come later. Mount Shasta is visible from the land of the Klamaths, who no doubt have witnessed prehistoric eruptions. The region’s isolation may also have played a role in keeping the legend alive.Culture survives best when not a people are not subject to repeated invasion. PS> One final note concerning Mt. Shasta (4,322 m). Most high mountains are in mountain ranges. Not Shasta. There are not even many foothills. It is truly the lonely mountain. 1. National park foundation: Crater lake national park 2. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest By Ella Elizabeth Clark The origin of crater lake, p 53 3. Cressman, LS. Klamath Indian archaeology preliminary report Northwest science: vol 22, may 1948, p83 4.Volcano discovery: Mount Shasta volcano Thanks Leif!
