Columbia River. Courtesy Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission. http://www.critfc.org/
Johnson Meninick
[audio:https://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/prog304/mp3/304_tis.mp3]Johnson Meninick:
[speaking in Yakama]
Arlie Neskahi:
Yakama elder, Johnson Meninick speaks of his people’s legends and shares his wisdom on today’s Turtle Island Storytellers. To Johnson, mountains are described as living beings that have taken care of the people below for thousands of years. Let’s listen in.
Johnson Meninick:
Today, my relatives and my friends, we are talking about the Creator’s law, how the Creator created the law that we must follow. The water, the land and the air that is our life. This law has a meaning to our Native people and it’s a sacred law that we follow.
Salmon, roasting around an open fire in preparation for the First Salmon feast at the Celilo Longhouse. Courtesy Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission. http://www.critfc.org/text/tribes.html
And as we know in the Northwest country, our people worship these laws and our sacred ceremonies and religious ceremonies. You hear so many times in the history books that you had to use paper to write a document. Our people never used paper to document. We look at the mountains that stands that provides nourishment for the resources, provides watershed into the streams, into the rivers, into the ocean. And the mountain will hold these resources for the women also. The men has to harvest the salmon and the animals, the big game, the small game, the avian, the one that flies. The women has to take care of the roots and the berries, and our spiritual people take care of the medicine. In this way, our people have lived for thousand of years, generation after generation.
We have to rely on these resources for our livelihood. We look after them because our resources cannot speak for themselves. We are the people that have to speak for the resources. And these mountains that stand, they are the witness of how we live. We have proven that. Our forefathers have seen the major floods, the fires, the cold winters, and they were able to survive because they rely on the resources for their livelihood. They knew how to live with the land.
Now the Five Sacred Mountains that we have here. The first one was called Washam. But jealousy started then. That Mt. Adams, called Patau, got jealous because their man, the sun, would come out every day and greet Washam first, so they got into a fight. Washam is no longer there, but Mt. Adams is there.
Tribal scientists doing fish monitoring beneath the White Bluffs at the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River. Courtesy Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission. http://www.critfc.org/legal/legal.html
The other sister, Mt. Rainier, is called Tahoma.Those keep the resources at the Cascade Mountains. The other is Mt. Hood. Some people call Wy’east. And (l) is the youngest one, St. Helens.
The wisdom of these mountains watch over us, how we conduct ourselves and how we behave. The disasters that they had. It got dark. The flood. The fire. Cold. This is a reminder for us people. We must remember our heritage is very important.
Not too long ago, about twenty some years ago, we were reminded by St. Helens eruptions. A lot of people and we had a fear. But the teaching by our elders is if we follow our own laws, the Creator will look after you and take care of you. When you do not follow these laws, you will be punished, not by the judge, but by the Creator. That is when you will cry and your tears will fall. Your big tears will fall. “Somebody please help me.”
But if you know how to resurrect yourself, remember your culture. Remember your heritage. Take care of the resources and they will look after you. But if you forget these resources and find other new ways, this is the time it’ll tell. You never know what you had until you lost it all and then it is too late. You can never get them back.
The foreign products that are here now has done away with a lot of our young people. Alcohol, now drugs, and many other things that had happened, the treaties that were made. Now our people go to service and a lot of them never come back.
But the irony of the whole thing is the ones that have came back alive, they were, that came to our gatherings and told a story that: “I remembered a song. I remembered my language. I remembered the words. My life has been spared, and I’m happy to be home.”
So there is a strong gift that the Creator provided for us, if we follow it truthfully. A lot of us people make mistakes. We kill the game and we sell it. We kill the fish, we sell it. We’re selling our own resources when we are supposed to share with one another, our brothers and sisters, the elders and the children.
So that is why, when us elders are asked to provide this kind of information, we hope that our people are listening to the teachings we pass on. Because they are gone, they are no longer here, but their words still live in our hearts. We hope that in the future some more generations yet coming, yet unborn, can take this message and use it wisely, because there is a big reward waiting for you.