i) THE INDIAN READING SERIES:
% Stories and Legends of the Northwest



If you visit an Indian home in the Northwest today, you often will
notice many baskets on display about the house.

Some of these baskets are delicately made, some are large, some are
small and some are loosely woven. There are many, many different styles
and colors, and each type served a specific purpose.


To make a canoe, it was necessary
to find a tree three or four feet in diam-
eter. The felling was done by chisel and
hammer. The chisel was crafted from
elk horns or large animal bones.

Log splitting was done with
wooden wedges, and then the shaping
began. A fire was built inside the tree
to smooth and harden the sides. Gritty
stones were used to polish the surface.
Tallow and pitch filled any cracks.


Loosely woven baskets were used in clam digging to wash the clams
and also for storing food. The space between the strands allowed air to
circulate through the stored food to keep it fresh.

Baskets were made from many kinds of materials: cedar bark, willow
wands, sweet grass, cattails, and tree roots.


Baskets that are tightly woven are used
for cooking, carrying water, and for berrypick-
ing. In the Tawana language, they are called
sp3’cHu (spu’choo). In the old days, cooking
took a lot longer than it does now. Food was put
into the basket with water, then very hot rocks
were taken from the fire and dropped into the
basket, causing the water to boil. This was
repeated until the food was cooked.




Baskets
and
Canoes

The Indian

Reading Series





Imagine all the streams and waterways of this region filled with
canoe traffic today, and every fisherman and his family using baskets to
carry their catch. These methods, developed by the Indian tribes over
many hundreds of years, were as adequate for their purpose as the
equipment we use today.


You may also notice in these same Northwest Indian homes, models of
canoes carved from cedar. Many are larger than toy size. These models are
replicas of the large fleets used by the tribes before modern means of
transportation were developed. In the Hood Canal region, the mode of
transportation was by canoe only.

Like baskets, there were many types of canoes, each with a spe-
cialized use. The shovel-nosed canoe was used on rivers. A type called the
“sneak” canoe had a slender front three feet high. With fir boughs for
camouflage, the early tribesmen used the “sneak” canoe for duck hunting.

The biggest canoe was called the Chinook, or o?oycd (oh oat ks) in the
Tawana language, and was thirty or more feet long. This vessel was used
in warfare, for carrying large numbers of people to potlatches, and for
transporting people and supplies to clamming and hunting grounds. Here
the clams, fish and meat were prepared for the winter. The tribesmen
loaded their supplies into these spacious canoes and returned to their
homes.


This work has not as yet been published and is afforded all
protections under the U.S. Copyright Law (PL. 94-553) effective
January 1, 1978.

Copyright in the published edition will be held by and in the name of the
Skokomish Tribe.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transcribed, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the author agency identified below.

The project presented or reported herein was performed
pursuant to a grant from the National Institute of Education,
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. However, the
opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the
position or policy of the National Institute of Education,

and ne official endorsement by the National Institute of
Education should be inferred.

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
710 S.W. Second Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97204


THE INDIAN READING SERIES:
Stories and Legends of the Northwest

Skokomish Baskets and Canoes
Series IV

Developed by the Coast Area Planning Committee

Jeanne Evernden, Coordinator
Wilma Bush

Gerald Miller

Georgia Oliver

Yvonne Peterson

Illustrated by Terry Tafoya
A Skokomish Story

Joseph Coburn, Director
Pacific Northwest Indian Program
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory



THE INDIAN READING SERIES: Stories and Legends of the
Northwest is a collection of authentic material cooperatively devel-
oped by Indian people from twelve reservations. Development ac-
tivities are guided by a Policy Board which represents the Indian
community of the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest Indian
Reading and Language Development Program Policy Board mem-
bers are:

* Warren Clements — Warm Springs
Chairman

+ Clement Azure — Devils Lake Sioux

+ Walter Moffett — Nez Perce

+ Emmett Oliver — Quinault

+ Bob Parsley — Chippewa

+ Lloyd Smith — Warm Springs

+ Max Snow

+ Jeanne Thomas — Yakima


Booklets available in the Level IV sequence are listed below. Numbers refer to the Planned Sequence of use
in the Teacher’s Manual. Materials developed by these tribes and others in the Northwest are included in
the Levels I, II and III sequences.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Warm Springs Animal Stories
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon

Snail Women at Sq*a’le

The Suquamish Tribe of the Port Madison
Reservation

Blue Jay — Star Child/Basket Woman
Muckleshoot Tribe

Assiniboine Woman Making Grease
Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Peck Reservation
Coyote

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon

6. How the Summer Season Came

7.

Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Belknap
Reservation
Little Weasel’s Dream

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

8. Fort Hall Stories

9.

10.

ll.

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall
Reservation

The Bear Tepee

Northern Cheyenne Tribe

Sioux Stories and Legends

Sioux Tribe of the Fort Peck Reservation
Kootenai Stories

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

12.

13.

14,

15.

16.

Chief Mountain’s Medicine
Gros Ventre Tribe from the Fort Belknap
Reservation

Coyote the Trickster
Burns Paiute Reservation

Running Free
Shoalwater Bay

Salish Coyote Stories
Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

Coyote and the Cowboys
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall
Reservation

17. Napi’s Journey

18.

19.

Blackfeet Tribe

Warm Springs Stories

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon

Tepee Making

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

20. Baskets and Canoes

21.

Skokomish Tribe

Warrior People
Blackfeet Tribe