The Mountain Spirits

Mountain Spirit - Nez Perce

 

 

Allalimyah, a mountain spirit or spirit of the wind. He was in the form of a person. A tall old man taller than any tree. Walking to and fro continually never resting, never eating, wailing and weeping blood, tears of blood constantly dripping not only from this eyes but from the great staff in his hand.

 

Many of the people a long time ago tried to touch this person, cannot tell whether man or woman. They grabbed but found nothing but air in their hands. With his breath he started all the breezes. If he did rest a moment it was at his turning places one of these was over at that mountain between Moscow and Spokane and the other turning place near Asotin he was on the go all the time first one way then turned went back over the same road.

 

That mountain is where the Nez Perce and Umatillas took refuge at the time of the great flood when all other places but that one mountain had been submerged. The stone is there yet in which they found their kouse - looks they tell just like one of their old morters.

 

Alla lim yah was a great spirit ranked higher than the spirit of the cold or heat. He it was who sent the way a kin in form of bird or beast to their sons or daughters when alone on the mountains.

from archives of Blue Panther

MELTING THE ICE: a start

Yesterday 

Elder's Meditation of the Day May 22

"The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was... The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it..." -Chief Joseph, NEZ PERCE 

There is danger when we start to draw lines and boundaries. This is true whether outside ourselves or inside ourselves. The danger is losing sight of the interconnectedness. When we lose sight of interconnectedness, separation, possessiveness (this is mine, I can do what I want) and infighting results. Even at an individual level, if we don't believe we are connected to all things we get self-centered and have self-seeking motives. We must think in harmony, balance and integrity. We must see our relationship to the great whole and conduct ourselves accordingly.

Great Spirit, today, let me think beyond boundaries. 

NEZ PERCE story: East Country Boy

There were two brothers. The elder took for his wife an eastern maiden, and they lived in the East Country. They were four, the husband and wife, the younger brother and the wife's father. 

It developed that the younger brother became homesick. He would say to himself, "Ah me! ['qi' ttsayqan] I wish I could go to the West Country now." 

The woman overheard him, and she told her father, "My husband's brother is homesick. Just now I overheard him say, 'Ah me! I wish I could go to the West Country now.'" 

Her father said to her, "Then why do you let him pine for his homeland? Take him!" 

The woman then told her husband, "This is what my father said to me." 

The husband replied, "It is for us, then, to take him." So they wrapped him in elk hide and mounted him, or rather packed him on an elk. They told him, "You positively must not struggle to free yourself even though you will hear a great din. You must not peep from the hide." 

He replied to them, "That I certainly will not do." 

Then the father told them, "You are to cross over five mountains, and only there he may look about, but not on this side. You are to take wild sheep, elk, buffalo and moose.' Then they wrapped him in the hide and mounted him. They went. 

Now the younger brother heard from within the constant thundering ["xim-, xim-"] of the herd all along the way. It was particularly noisy at the crossings, because there the buffalo and others would lose one another in the crowding. It was very, very noisy. Then he said to himself as they went along, "Oh, how I wish, oh, how I wish that I could see then even once." And so he gnawed a hole. 

Meanwhile at home the old man kept count of their days spent in travel. "They must have reached there by this time." They crossed three mountains and were at the fourth. Then, again the younger brother heard them. Oh, the thundering of the herd ["xim-xim-"] He gnawed his way through-and saw them. Oh! In droves there were the buffalo wild sheep, moose, and elk. but, because he saw them, they ran homeward pell-mell. The ran wildly and arrived back whence they had started. 

The old man said to himself, "I told them, 'Positively do not let him see them; positively he must not peep,' and now he has disobeyed." They all returned, and they stayed there for a long time. 

One day the woman overheard him again, "Ah me! I wish I could arrive in the West Country now." The woman went to her father and said to him, "He is longing for h homeland very deeply again." 

The old man said to her, "If you wish to take him again, then mount him on a buffalo bull, one which has tough and very thick skin between the shoulder blades. He will not bite through that easily." 

The woman told this to her husband, and again they said to him, "We are taking you only once more, and you know already what will happen if you see the herd even once." 

He said to them now, "Positively I will not again become impatient; even if I want see them, I will absolutely not struggle." 

"Yes," the old man replied, "yes, you speak good words. You are to go now." The wrapped him in a buffalo hide and mounted him on a bull. Thus they went again. Now he heard from within the thundering ['xim-, xim-"] of the herd of buffalo, wild sheep, and others as they traveled along. 

Again he thought, "I wish I could only see them. I wish I could only see them." The again, going along he began to gnaw a hole. The hide was thick and tough. At home the old man kept calculating the time that they had been gone. "They have reached there," he thought. "I wish they would cross the last mountain because then they could have those buffalo, wild sheep, elk, and moose for all time. They have gone for the last time absolutely. If he returns, never again will I send them, even if he pines for home." 

Now they arrived at the last mountain; and as they crossed the younger brother heard the thundering ["xim-, xim-"] of the herd behind him. He exerted himself to the utmost and gnawed his way through. And he saw them. They were crossing in this direction; but, oh, they came to a sudden halt, turned around at once, and ran never again to be brought back. All the elk, wild sheep, moose, and buffalo stayed there in the East Country. Had they crossed the fifth mountain, they would have remained in the West Country for all rime. That is the reason why there have never been moose, wild sheep, buffalo and elk west of the mountain divide.

Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949] 

NEZ PERCE COYOTE STORY

Coyote the Expeditioner  - Nez Perce 

Coyote [itsaya' ya] was building a fish ladder down the river. While he was busily engaged at this task, someone shouted to him, "Now why are you bothering with that? All the people have gone on the big expedition into the East Country." 

"Huh!" he said to himself. "I believe I will go, too. Why should I stay here?" He started for the East Country. He found as he went along traces of the people's camping, and evidences of such activities as ball playing, announcing of daily events, war dancing, and in fact every kind of merriment. He saw all these things as he followed. 

While going along, he suddenly came upon a lodge in a little meadow. "Well, who is his?" he said to himself. He crept up to the lodge cautiously. He was brimming with curiosity. He heard a moan come from within. He crept closer and came to the door-flap, thereupon he peeped through to behold a beautiful maiden ill in bed. 

Coyote quickly retreated. There, some distance from the lodge, he charmed himself by saying, "Let me become a very handsome man, finely clothed, and let me have a beautiful, spotted horse." Thereupon he became possessed of all these things. 

He went to the lodge again, approaching grandly and in all pomp, with the jingling of he bells and ornaments that he wore. When she heard his approach, the maiden inside rendered who could be coming to visit her. Now disguised, Coyote entered and said to the maiden, "What has happened to you?" He used the down-river accent to make his guise Bore effective. 

"I have a splinter in my foot, a buffalo horn," replied the maiden. 

"Well," said Coyote, "where are my friends the Eagle and others? He named those of great power. Why did they not doctor you? They are always claiming powers superior to mine. Why did they leave you in this pitiful condition?" 

"Well, my mother and father told me that if someone should come along and doctor me, and make me well again, he should become my husband," the maiden told him. 

"I see," said Coyote, "but there is a party of us; they are waiting for me there now. Being young men they are in a hurry, but perhaps they will sing for you briefly and then go long. They are in such a hurry." [He pretended that he was a great shaman.] 

Coyote went outside, walked away some distance, and then struck his hip with his fist to cause his children to tumble out ["yo '-x ox ox ox"]. At once these ten children began to fight fiercely among themselves. Coyote called for their fighting to stop and told them, "You are going to sing for me and beat sticks in accompaniment because there is a maiden ill abed." Thereupon they all marched into the lodge where Coyote placed himself at the maiden's feet while the others, from the opposite side, made a great din by their singing are beating of sticks ["wax-wax-wax-wax"]. 

Now Coyote began to work on the horn in her foot, tugging at it with his teeth. The splinter had already caused a big accumulation of pus and, suddenly now, as Coyote pulled out the horn, he was splattered with pus. Then, quickly, he blew his breath on the wound to cool it. 

. "Now, these boys are in a hurry," Coyote told her. "So let me see them off briefly that they may be on their way." All stood up in unison and went out. There outside Coyote told them. "Hurry, jump inside." He came back to the house quickly, and there he nursed her They stayed day after day until eventually her foot became much better. 

One day Coyote said to her, "Tomorrow we are going to move up and follow the main party " They went, and Coyote now had a wife. Far away they caught up to the party which had already crossed the divide into the East Country. The people had assembled in a great encampment. There Coyote asked them, "Where is my aunt, Mouse [laqatsya' ya], living?" 

"There, over there is their camp," they replied. So Coyote went, taking his wife to his aunt. He arrived there and asked, "Where is my cousin, Bear [xa' xats], camped?" 

"There," the Mouse told him. Such a splendid lodge Bear owned, set off in two-tone effect. 

Coyote now said, "Go to my cousin's lodge and fetch his hand-drum to me. 

"From such a dangerous one?" said the Mouse in alarm. 

"Why you are not even afraid of me! Why should you fear him? Hurry, get it for me!" Coyote insisted. All the people had great respect for Bear, and certainly, no one dared defy or to impose on him. 

"Such a nuisance Coyote makes himself invariably," thought the Mouse; nevertheless she went to Bear's lodge. There the Mouse sat, very much abashed, in the doorway of Bear's lodge and said, "I was only made to come by troublesome Coyote. He insisted that his cousin Bear lend him his hand-drum." 

Bear turned to his wife and said, "Give him yours." Each one had a drum. His wife gave her drum to Mouse who then carried it to Coyote. 

"Egad! Whose is it? His very own? No, it is a woman's," raved Coyote upon receiving the drum. "I wanted his very own-not my cousin's wife's. Hurry back and get the other one for me." 

She went back, looking very downcast and feeling most remorseful, to sit again by doorway of Bear's lodge. She told him, "He said that he does not want his cousin's wife but that you should lend him your very own." 

"What bother he talks; and it is always so. Here take this to him. What a nuisance has become." 

The Mouse took the drum and carried it to Coyote. "This is it; this is my cousin's own! What was he thinking to give me a woman's in the first place?" said Coyote. Now he lounged back, pillowed himself on the lap of his wife, and commenced playing and singing in an excessively loud voice. The people gathered around. All the people in camp crowded around. There he was, head pillowed on his wife and his eyes closed, playing and singing. 

From over in his lodge Bear could hear that the hand-drum had begun to sound strange, and he thought to himself, "What is this? Coyote is ruining my hand-drum." Coyote had been sprinkling the drum-head with water every little while. Bear ordered them, "Get my hand-drum! Coyote is spoiling it." 

When Coyote heard that Bear wanted his drum returned he, at once, became very angry. In his anger he threw it out of the smoke-hole of the lodge, and it happened to fall exactly into the smoke-hole of Bear's lodge. 

Bear became infuriated at this, but now the people told him, "They have exchanged his wife on him. He thinks that his beautiful wife whom he brought still sits there, and that he is pillowed on her lap. But awhile ago, they changed her around and put Lady Bullfrog [waxwaq'-lo' sana] in her place. It was a long time ago that they took his wife, while he was singing with his eyes closed. 

"It serves him right! He was becoming a nuisance," Bear replied. Here was Coyote reclining very comfortably. He happened to glance upward casually and suddenly beheld Lady Bullfrog with her big eyes blinking. "What are you doing here? So this is why the people have been laughing at me! Go away! So they exchanged my wife while I was reclining on her?" 

"Yes, nephew," replied Lady Bullfrog, "they had me sit here quite awhile ago. I don't know where they took your wife." 

Coyote now addressed all the people, "Not only am I indignant and hurt. Only a short time from now the human race comes, and many people will come on expeditions to this East Country. But on crossing the divide here, their wives will go wrong, will do foolish things. Even a quiet, well-behaved woman will come over the divide; yet she will go wrong here. Not only for myself am I indignant, for there is only a short time until the coming of the human race. 

Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949] 

NEZ PERCE story about Coyote

Coyote the Interloper - Nez Perce 

Coyote [itsaya' ya] and his daughter dwelt nearby. Coyote became ill. He said to his daughter, "Daughter-child, go search for bones, even bleached ones, with which to make me broth." And she went out to search for bones. It was wintertime. She would break up the bones and boil the little pieces. In this way she made broth for Coyote. 

One day she happened to find a whole limb that had been gnawed clean. Wolves had eaten the flesh and left the good bones. She thought, "Poor father will eat heartily of this." Then another day she found a salmon that had been only slightly eaten. "I will make broth of this for my poor father." She said to Coyote, "I found this salmon." 

But he exclaimed, "Foul [Rotten]! Daughter-child, it is winter salmon!" In truth, however, Coyote did not want any of the Otters' catch because he had no desire that his daughter should be taken in marriage by the Otters. This was the consideration which prompted him to find the salmon revolting, to lie to his daughter about winter salmon, and to command her, "Throw it away!" But Coyote liked the five Wolf brothers, and he thought, "It would be much better if she went to them." Thus he ate their leftover deer bones with much gusto. 

Coyote's daughter now threw away the salmon and went out to look for food again. She came upon a great antlered buck lying completely untouched, uneaten. Oh, such meat she took home. She laid the venison out to dry. Then she went out again, and this time she found a large bunch of salmon all strung together for carrying. "Ah, such good salmon." They were large ones and not even touched. "I will take these home." She took them to Coyote and said to him, "I found these very, very good salmon. Someone had gone away and left them, and here I've brought them home." 

"No, daughter-child, no! They are winter salmon and not at all good. Throw them away!" She threw them away. Coyote got well in the course of time, and the Wolves took his daughter for their wife. They took her away with them. 

Now the Otters [q laszya' ya] became indignant. They said, "Let us go to set the Wolves afire; let us encircle them with fire." Thereupon they went and set fire clear around the conical lodge and burned the Wolves to death. 

Then the dead Wolves began to prepare for their death departure when Coyote's daughter decided, "I must go to Coyote and have him burn all my things. Then I can go on from there to the death world." Thus she went to her fathers lodge. 

Coyote heard her coming. She came along laughing loudly, and Coyote recognize her. "I wonder why daughter-child comes to me at this time of the night? She is a doer of strange things, and now she comes along laughing." 

From outside she said to Coyote, "Father, we are on our way now. You will burn all of my things." 

"Such valuable things, daughter-child!" Coyote replied. 

"You will cause the Otters to become indignant! They set us afire, and now we are dead. Hurry, toss my things into the fire. The others are leaving me behind already. Hurry! 

"No, daughter-child! What shall I do here? I shall pine, daughter-child. Do not go." 

"There is no way I can remain. But you will stay here." 

"No, daughter-child. Then I, too, will follow along." 

"You cannot follow. You are alive." 

"Let me follow along anyhow. I shall do very pitifully if I stay here. Now I, too, am going. 

"Then if you must be so insistent, you will throw yourself into the fire; in that way you too, will be ready to go." 

"Yes daughter-child, I will throw myself into the fire." Here Coyote flung himself into the fire There was a sudden and noisy sizzle of burning hair ["ts' ox"], and he jumped out. He tried again and again. He would hurl himself into the flames; there would be a sizzle, burning hair, and out he would jump again. Then he said to his daughter, "I can't in any manner burn myself, daughter-child. Let me go just as I am, daughter-child. I will follow along, daughter-child, alive just as I am." 

"Then get yourself ready quickly. The others have left me far behind already." 

Now Coyote prepared himself, and they went. He could not see the others, but he could hear their voices and, guided thereby, he followed along. Dawn came. 

Coyote's daughter said to him, "It dawns for us when to you night falls, and your night is our daytime. Now night has fallen, and we are camping over. Though it is dawn to you, you are to stay right here. Do not go anywhere. Sit the day through here. When it is dusk for you, it will again be time for us to go on." 

Coyote spent the whole day there. Now the shadows fell; evening came. He began to hear them as if they were talking in whispers ["tsaw, tsaw"]. It grew dark, and now he heard them clearly, talking and laughing. In the wake of their voices again he followed them They traveled in this manner. Five times they camped overnight. 

Then Coyote's daughter said to him, "We have been traveling for five days. Tomorrow we shall arrive." 

"Let it be so." They traveled on, and at last they arrived. 

Coyote heard another coyote somewhere up front making formal announcements. [It was some coyote that had died long before.] "The Wolves arrive, five brothers; they bring Coyote's daughter with them. And Coyote, the interloper, arrives," was announced. Oh, there were many people, and Coyote could see them plainly now for the first time. He began to recognize various persons, and he enjoyed himself to the utmost. He saw various comrades who had died. 

His daughter said to him, "It is getting dark now, but to you it is coming dawn. In a little while you will not see anyone or hear anyone talking. But you must remain right here throughout the day. Do not go anywhere, even a short distance, because you will get lost and never find us again. In the evening you will see us all again." 

"Yes, daughter-child. Where could I go?" Now Coyote spent the day on the open prairie. In the evening he saw the people, and again he enjoyed himself. He stayed six days. 

One night his daughter came to him and said, "You are to go home now. You cannot remain here indefinitely like this. Even though you are enjoying yourself, you must go home tomorrow." 

"Yes, daughter-child, but I am having such a good time here. Why should I go home? I'm staying here."

"No. You will do very poorly here. You must go. You cause me to worry constantly. You must go home. I will make a lunch for you." 

Even though Coyote was most unwilling to go, he replied, "Yes, I will go then." 

His daughter continued, "When it has dawned for you, you will go." Now she brought for him a little package in buckskin wrapping. "You will take this with you, packed on your back. There are five mountains you must cross. Never look back of you. Do not even think, 'Let me look back from the summit.' You must go straight along and do nothing foolish. You may get tired, and you can rest. But above all you must never look behind you. You may hear things back of you, or recognize somebody by his voice. Still, you must not look behind you." 

"Yes, daughter-child, thus I will do. I will heed your words." 

Now she handed him the buckskin package which contained something and said, 'You may find this very heavy, but you will rest yourself. Do not look back ever." 

"Yes, daughter-child. How could I find this heavy?" 

In the morning he put his package on his back and started while his daughter instructed him for the last time. "You are to cross over five mountains. When you have crossed all five and have descended from the fifth, you may look behind you, but not until then." 

"Yes, daughter-child." Coyote went. He walked along fast, carrying on his back the little package wrapped in buckskin. He crossed one mountain, two, and then the third. "And she said of this, 'You will get tired.'" But now on the fourth mountain he began to feel a little bit fatigued. "The pack seems to be getting heavier." He climbed, and he began to tire. He barely crossed over and descended. He felt thoroughly exhausted now as he started up the fifth mountain. He was scarcely able to walk, and he felt the pack growing very, very heavy. He continued the ascent, just barely moving along. He reached the half way point, and he looked up. The summit appeared to be very far away. He kept going, just dragging one foot after another, and slowly ascended. He was tired, completely exhausted but he saw the top of the mountain only a short distance away now. Here his strength deserted him. He would take one step, and then he would have to rest. "Daughter-child spoke the truth when she told me, 'You will find the pack heavy.' " He continued slowly as he saw the summit close by. But suddenly his pack pulled him backwards into a sitting position. He fell backwards, and, suddenly, he turned his head and looked behind him. Coyote saw the five Wolf brothers and his daughter stand up suddenly from the pack he had been carrying them all along. 

His daughter said to him, "I told you, 'Do not look back until you have crossed the five mountain.' Now you have caused us to return by your having looked behind you." 

"No, daughter-child. Let me pack you again. Do not return!" 

"No," she said to Coyote. "The coming of the human race is only a short time away and the returning of the dead could have become an established thing. You, yourself would have brought this about had you taken us over the mountain top there. But now you have made death a permanent condition, and people will never return from death." 

Now they disappeared and left Coyote there to weep. He called after them, "Then let me follow you back, and I will bring you again." No. They had left him. At this Coyote hiked off sulkily somewhere.

Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield, Washington, 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949] 

from archives of BLUE PANTHER

LOVE & HONOR

Coyote Man Is Threatened By Warrior Brother - Nez Perce 

Beautiful Woman's brother was the strongest, fiercest, most talented warrior of the clan. Beautiful Woman told her brother about how Coyote Man seduced her with empty promises on the river bank. Warrior Brother gathered the entire tribe. "I will challenge Coyote Man to a fight. We will fight in the middle of the village." The people agreed. No man makes promises he can not keep. Warrior Brother found Coyote in the shade of the brush licking himself. Warrior Brother threatened, "I challenge you to a fight to the death, for dishonoring my sister." Coyote transformed into a man and followed the challenger to the village. People spat at Coyote Man. 

They yelled questions. "Why don't you ever work in the fields with us, you lazy bum? Why do you always challenge our traditions? Why do you lie?" Coyote Man answered each question before fighting. He refused the weapons that were given him. "I work smart, not hard. Your traditions are stupid. And I tell the truth that you do not want to hear." 

Warrior Brother came at Coyote Man. He plunged an axe right into Coyote Man's chest. Coyote Man stood there and did not bleed. "I am an immortal. I lived in the dreams of your ancestors long before you arrived. I can not die." With these words, Coyote Man turned into a very old man. "Beautiful Woman, I told you that I would be your man for that moment. I never said forever." Coyote Man took the axe out of his chest and buried it. He transformed back into Coyote and ran into the brush.


- from BLUE PANTHER'S archives

Earth Wisdom

“The Earth is the Mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the river to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.” - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

“There is no death. Only a change of worlds.”

- Chief Seattle

“We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees.”
- Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody),

Nuxalk Nation

VALENTINE'S DAY: a traditional story

 Coyote Man Tricks Beautiful Woman - Nez Perce

A beautiful young woman looked into the water of the river and cried because she had learned that the man she was to marry, died in battle. All that they brought to her was his bloody shoe. "Why did it have to be my man?" she cried to God. Coyote was licking himself in the shade when he heard her sob to God, asking him why her man had died. He peeked at her through the brush.

"What a lovely girl!" he thought. "I must have her." In lust, Coyote transformed into Coyote Man. "I know why," he said, coming out of the tall grasses. Beautiful Woman stared at him with tears in her eyes. He was a stranger and very attractive.

"Why?" she asked him. "Because God is far away on a hunting trip. How can he watch his children when he is away."
"Who watches us then?" she asked Coyote Man.

Plainly he spoke. "I do." Coyote man sat beside her on the bank and caressed her and calmed her. "I will be your man, for now."
Beautiful Woman let him love her. Coyote Man got up. It was late in the day. She asked, "Will you stay with me?"
He smiled at her. "No. I can not stay with you." She realized that he was Coyote. She yelled, "Go away from me."
He smiled again. "Shit happens." He muttered as he walked back into the brush.

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories

Native sovereignty

Inherent sovereignty under siege in Lara appeal Part Two

Posted: December 05, 2003 - 11:39am EST

by: Jerry Reynolds / Washington D.C. correspondent / Indian Country Today
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1070642490

WASHINGTON - The inherent sovereignty of tribes can be seen as the power of "we the people," the same power that founded America.

But in the case of tribes, it came about much earlier because "we the Indian people," if you will, had been governing themselves in tribes for centuries. And so their inherent sovereignty is said to "predate the Constitution," as recognized in U.S. Courts and international law.

Centuries of antagonism from the British colonies and later American states is held to have extinguished inherent tribal sovereignty over former tribal territories now governed by the United States, or for that matter, states of the United States. This is the general basis for legal arguments that seek to find an extinction of sovereignty. But in negotiating treaties and pressing their legal rights in the U.S. courts, tribes have asserted a pre-existing inherent sovereignty over their own remaining territories, subject to oversight of Congress as the U.S. treaty-making power. This is the general basis for the legal standing of tribes as limited dependent sovereigns.

This is all pretty clear, and readily comprehensible despite the many Indians who speak of tribal sovereignty as if the "limited, dependent" part of the formula doesn’t apply, and the many more non-Indians who speak of tribes as if the "sovereign" part of it doesn’t apply.

But beyond these clear lines of thought, as egos and resources and competing priorities come into play, the limited and dependent, but stubbornly real sovereignty of tribes is subject to periodic legal sieges that would further reduce its arena of relevance. One such anti-sovereignty approach is to translate inherent powers, which require only the consent of the governed for its expression, into delegated powers, which rely on the will of the delegating authority.

Time after time, U.S. history demonstrates that political will is a major problem for tribes - which however justly courts may reason, congressional willpower may lag behind. The Marshall decisions of the early 19th century may have established the basis of tribal rights, for instance, but President Andrew Jackson famously suggested the chief justice ought to also enforce his rulings and instead proceeded with Cherokee removal. More recently, a judge opined that the Black Hills takings were as rank and dishonorable a piece of wrong dealing as the government has ever engaged in, but concluded that nothing could be done about it (beyond offering a cash payment) at this later stage of history. And only a month ago, Congress overruled the clear reasoning and just decision of the courts by stalling a court-ordered historical accounting of the trust funds - not because one isn’t past due or because Indian trust beneficiaries haven’t been harmed, but because the wealthiest nation in the history of the world can’t afford to pay for it.

A modern philosopher has noted that the "obstacles to comprehension" have less to do with understanding than with lack of willpower. In each of these cases and many others, it becomes clear the U.S. Congress could do what courts and the Constitution require of it if it had the will. As one commentator said of congressional intervention in the trust funds case, "If they had the will to do an historical accounting, they would find the money."

Against this background, the Supreme Court’s decision to hear an appeal in United States v. Lara could indeed prove to be a significant test of tribes’ inherent sovereign powers, as the Washington law firm of Hobbs Straus Dean & Walker LLP, long active in Indian-specific litigation and co-drafter of a "friend of the court" brief in the case, has already suggested.

Brief details of the Byzantine legal proceedings in the case were recounted in the first installment of this series; suffice to say here that by letting a lower-court ruling stand in Lara, the court would establish the principle that inherent sovereign powers, once lost, cannot be restored by Congress. If the high court overturns the lower court, on the other hand, the precedent will be set for replacing a tribe’s lost inherent sovereign power with delegated federal power - the kind that is subject to the political will of Congress before the reasoning of courts.

©2003 Indian Country Today

Native American Nez Perce & Salish woman Kola Anderson in black shawl

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY

“Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them. I say to him, No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says, Pay me money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.”

Chief Joseph, Nez Pierce

white business man

“Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them. I say to him, No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says, Pay me money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.”

Chief Joseph, Nez Pierce

COYOTE & HUMMINGBIRD: a Nez Perce story

Coyote [itsaya' ya] was going along up the valley. There, as he went, someone shouted to him, "You who goes along up the valley, let us engage in battle."

"Ah, right here they buried a person alive once upon a time. It is he who haunts me," said Coyote to himself.

But thereupon he heard again, "You who goes up the valley, let us engage in battle."

"Ho! [ma'!]" Coyote said to himself suddenly. "There they are perched on the mountaintop. " Now he shouted to them, "Hurrah! [iya' - war cry]. That happens to be just what I am searching for; let us, indeed, engage in battle." They disappeared from the mountain peak. It so happened that they were Hummingbird [tama' mno] and his brother. Shortly they came dashing into view. Both fought and killed Coyote very easily. "It was Coyote," one said to the other. "That is why he was so spirited and impudent." They dragged him down the hill and threw him into the river. He floated downstream one and a half bends of the river. There he floated ashore.

Then Magpie [a ' k' ax] came dashing along up the river about that time crying, "Law, haw, law. Well, here's my friend! What manner of thing could have killed him? Perhaps he has brow-fat." He pecked, searching for the brow-fat, when he awakened Coyote by his pecking ["pok' a' t, pok' a' t, pok' a' t"].

"You! Why are you flying about here you-you Magpie? You have awakened me by your pecking just as I was carrying the head of the valley's daughter across the river," scolded Coyote.

"And how could you have been carrying the head of the valley's daughter across the river when above here the Hummingbirds killed you? They are powerful killers," the Magpie said as he left him.

Coyote now pushed himself to his feet, struck his hips, and out tumbled his children ["yo' x ox ox ox" - - sound of tumbling out]. They fought themselves at once until Coyote told them, "Hurry, come inside." They ran back into Coyote again, but he cut off the entry of the youngest one and said to him, "Tell me things."

"You, the one who makes others cold by floating about in the water! Above here are the Hummingbird and his brother, terrible killers, and you, you inveterate finder of trouble, thought, 'I will fight with them,' " he scolded Coyote.

"Yes, now tell me things," said Coyote.

"There, from where they shouted at you, they have their hearts which they leave behind in safety while they dash off to battle and thus absolutely fortify themselves against death in every way. You will go up the valley, but as you come close by you will make yourself a cane and then affect lameness. When they shout at you again reply to them, "Come beat me, beat me to death right here where I am. Below here we were fighting, and l was wounded like this.' Then, just as they go out of sight over the other way to go down the ravine, you, too, at exactly the same moment, will exert yourself to your greatest speed straight up the mountainside to dash upon their hearts and thereby kill them.

"Yes so I was thinking already." said Coyote. "By the way. go back inside now for you are only detaining me." From there he went on up the valley. Presently he thought, as he went along, "Now very shortly they will shout at me." Here he made a cane and then went along limping, just barely able to walk.

The Hummingbirds were perched on the mountaintop. They said to each other, "There comes another." The elder one said, "He is a lame, old man, the poor fellow who goes along. Let us allow him to pass."

"Yes" replied the younger, "but let me just joke with him, just by way of scaring him perhaps."

But the elder brother asked him not to do it. "The poor fellow. Leave him unmolested."

Nevertheless, the younger one shouted to Coyote, "You there who goes up the valley let us engage in battle." He went along as unmindful as if he hadn't heard at all. The elder brother again remonstrated, "Let him be." But the other persisted in shouting again, "You who goes up the valley there, let us engage in battle."

Coyote came to a sudden stop and replied, "Come, beat me to death right here where I am then. Below here we were fighting, and I was wounded." Here the younger brother said to the elder, "Now let us attack him. You know we never allow anyone to pass by." Then out of sight they went. At the same moment Coyote ran, just like a tendon broken from tautness, upward at great speed.

The Hummingbirds swooped down the ravine and arrived very quickly. "Where has gone? He was right here." They looked about when, suddenly, they saw Coyote. The elder one said, "Now he will kill us!" From there they flew their fastest, followed Coyote who was running up the hill with a speed like the tension of tendons broken from tautness. They chased him furiously, and as they went along, the elder brother berated the younger.

"I told you, 'Why bother him!' Now he will kill us."

Coyote saw, as he ran, the feathers fastened to a willow tree. He saw t Hummingbirds behind him, saw them quickly gain on him. He exerted himself; he exerted himself to the utmost. He arrived, with a dash, on the mountaintop. Quickly he seized the feathers and plucked them. They, too, now had come up very, very close when, sudden they fell backwards -- dead.

"Where do you get this notion to become killers?" Coyote spoke. "Only a short time from now the human race is coming. Then the people will say, 'Already it has come to that time of the year [May], for the Hummingbirds are going about.' "

Taken from Tales of the Nez Perce by Donald M. Hines, Ye Galleon Press; Fairfield , Washington , 1999 [gathered from other source books dated between 1912 and 1949]

Lapwai, "Valley of the Butterflies"

Lapwai, “Valley of the butterflies”

http://www.examiner.com/x-20448-Idaho-History-Examiner~y2009m10d10-Lapwai-Valley-of-the-butterflies?cid=channel-rss-Society_and_Culture

Located along US Highway 95-not far from the present town of Lewiston, is a small 99 acre park, containing an historical cemetery, buildings, interpretive signs and a park.

Since 1897, the area was and is known as the “Spalding site.” Today, it is also the site of the Nez Perce National Historical Park.
It’s original Nez Perce name was Lapwai-meaning “lap-lap,” which referred to the sounds a b utterfly made with its wings. Due to the abundance of butterflies in the valley, the area was known as the “Valley of Butterflies or Land or Place of the Butterfly.”
As early as 1805, Lewis & Clark passed through this valley on their journey to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark’s interpreter, incorrectly transcribed the Nez Perce name as a French phrase meaning “Pierced Nose,” when in fact, that was not the case. The Nez Perce call themselves, Nimi'ipuu, which means the "real people" or "we the people." A Nez Perce tribal elder recalled a word before Nimi'ipuu, which was Cuupn'itpel'uu. It meant “before we had horses,” or “we walked out of the woods,” or walked out of the mountains.”


In 1836, the Rev. Henry Spalding and his wife-Presbyterian missionaries recruited by Dr. Whitman-another Presbyterian missionary, were asked to accompany him and his wife to the west to establish several missions. Dr. Whitman set up his in Walla Walla and Henry Spalding set up his, some twelve miles up the Clearwater in Lapwai.

Three years later, in 1839, Rev. Spalding was the recipient of a used printing press. It’s interesting to note, that the press was the first one in the Pacific Northwest. Rev. Spalding used his press to print and publish the bible. (As you will see as I reveal his story, Rev. Spalding and his family had many firsts!).
Change came quickly to the area. By 1848, it was part of the Oregon Territory. In 1855, the Nez Perce Indian Reservation was established here. In 1863, the “Valley of the butterflies,” had become part of the Idaho Territory. During the gold rush of 1860, Fort Lapwai was established. Federal troops were stationed here in order to keep the peace between the Indians and the influx of miners looking for gold. Fort Lapwai remained in use, until 1885
Today, the “Valley of the Butterflies,” remains as the seat of the Nez Perce Indian Nation