Chinook Creation Myth

The Chinook Nation is located in the lower Columbia River region of the Pacific Northwest. From their website, "It is here that our Chinook families welcomed Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean and helped them survive the winter of 1805 and 1806." In thanks, Lewis and Clark stole a canoe when they left.

The Chinook Nation is currently (as of 2020) working to obtain federal recognition. They did gain Federal Recognition in 2001 from the Department of Interior under President Bill Clinton. After President George W. Bush was elected, his political appointees reviewed the case and, in a highly unusual action, revoked the recognition.

My painting of the day is based on a Chinook creation myth that I found on native-languages.org and paraphrase here.

South wind was traveling north, hungry. He met an old woman, a giantess and asked her for food. She didn't have any, but offered a fishing net. South wind caught a whale. The giantess said to cut it down the back, but South wind ignored her and cut sideways. A great Thunderbird emerged. It flew away to the highest mountain to lay eggs. The giantess followed until she found the eggs unguarded. She cracked an egg, but it was bad, so she tossed it. When it landed, the first human emerged. All the eggs were the same, all were tossed, all became Chinook.

Chinook creation myth original painting, prints, and merch available from shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

When Thunderbird saw the empty nest, she was infuriated. Thunderbird and South wind still travel north every year searching for the giantess to exact revenge, but they haven't found her yet.

I had heard of this story briefly from other websites, which named the giantess instead as a goddess named Quootis-Hooi...but native-languages.org had the most detailed version of the story, so I went with the unnamed giantess. Please leave a comment if you know any more details about Quootis-Hooi and her story. Thanks!

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