On Wed, 26 Apr 1995, Stuart MacKay wrote:

> Jon Anderson wrote:
>
> > I fully support that effort, and would also like to see the
> > Chinookan:
> >
> > Klickitat - not Mt Adams
> > Lillooet -- not Mt St Helens
> > Wy'East --- not Mt Hood
> >
> > There are many others (Does anyone know the Kalapuyan or
> > Mollalla name for Mt Jefferson in Oregon?).
> >
>
> These names are really neat, any ideas of what their meanings, literal or
> otherwise are ?

> Stuart MacKay

They were the *names of the mountains*.

Lillooet was described as a beautiful (Mt St Helens was a 'perfect'
volcanic cone prior to May 18th 1980) sorceress/seductress who wooed the
two other mountains, Wy'East on the south side of the great river and Klickitat
on the north side. The two male mountains fought a terrible fight over the
witch Lillooet.

In this fight, fire filled the air, great stones were flung at each
other, and in the fight the Bridge of the Gods collapsed into the river.
When the bridge collapsed, it is said that the salmon were unable to
return up the river past the blockage, and the people of the land went
hungry until "the salmon came back to the river" many generations later.
Saghalie Tyee was saddened by this fight, and retaliated by turning the
three of them into mountains.

An old story, and probably much altered by translation into the English,
but it is as good as I can do from memory. It has been postulated that
some of the early inhabitants of the country probably witnessed some
fairly major eruptions of the three mountains, as well as the land mass
slumping that formed and destroyed the Bridge of the Gods. I understand
that, before the dams were built, upright trees could be seen at the BOTG
where the landslides had once blocked the Columbia. The geology of the
Columbia River gorge is well-described in my old college text: Geology of
Oregon, and the native "myths" are probably easily found in the library.

Note that the fish came back once. It's up to us not to let them go a
second time....

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov