Sacred Texts Native American Northwest Index Previous Next
A young man has killed many squirrels. One day he sees a white squirrel climbing a spruce tree. He goes around the tree to get a shot and finds that the squirrel is the daughter of the chief of the squirrels. He is called into the house. The chief asks him to burn the meat and bones of the squirrels whom he has killed and thus to restore the squirrel people to life. In return he promises to make the hunter a shaman and gives him a dance and a song. After some time the youth's dried-up body is found on the tree. It is taken to
his father's house and placed on a mat, and during the mourning ceremony he revives. The squirrel meat is burned and the youth becomes a great shaman.