Mrs. Wilsons True Tales Retold

(corresponding to “How to Make a Buck----Second”) Two variations of the myth are presented. Both tell the tale of how the salmon came into the river. Both begin with the notion that the people were dying of hunger and ate roots, before the salmon appear, that food which dominates and enriches their diet, and which symbolizes wealth.The action of the myth is how salmon goes up river for the first time. As he goes up, the salmon travels with “people” who stop him as he goes and declare they want out of the canoe. The people referred to are not only the human beings. All living creatures are sentient, even plants, and therefore all are “persons” and are called “people.” So in the first instance it is skunk-cabbage who stops wants to go ashore, then Arrowhead, and then other roots. Each one goes ashore and settles into its environment, encoding the tale with the ethnology of naming and finding these foods. And to each one Salmon makes a gift—a potlatch, in the traditional manner—giving him something of val