14

The cold wind blew on my face and water sprayed
on me. It was cloudy and getting near evening. We finally
reached one of my dad’s nets and stopped the boat. My
dad started to pull the net out of the water and there we
found some big fish. There were little fish, too. Dad just
picked all the fish out of the net and threw them in the
boat. Some of them were still alive and flopped around by
my feet. My dad had to pick out sticks and leaves from
his net. If that isn’t done, the fish can see all that stuff
stuck in the net and they will know where the net is and
go around or under the net.


f ! ‘ =:

Ihave a Muckleshoot friend named Jeff who was in the same
class as I. Jeff also has long braids. Jeff is tough and can fight. When
kids tease him he just slugs them and tells them he will rip off their
arms and legs. They get scared or cry and sometimes Jeff gets in
trouble with the bus driver and the principal. Then Jeff’s mom has to
go down to the school and talk with the principal. Jeff doesn’t want
his hair cut.


That was my first time fishing with Dad. I got wet, cold and
hungry but I didn’t complain one bit. I was pretty proud of myself.
Dad took Mom and me to eat and then we went home. I want to be a
good fisherman like my dad.

18


Iam Lance. My parents are Indians and we live near Seattle,
Washington on the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation. Our people
don’t live in tepees or anything like that. We live in houses just like
everyone else. The old timers used to live in split timber lodges with
dirt floors and fires built in the middle.


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





21


I stood up and tried stomping on one flat fish. It was slippery
and just squished from under my boot. I kept trying but I guess I
wasn’t big enough.

My dad slowed the boat down and came to where I was stand-
ing. His big boot stomped on that fish. It crunched under his boot and
one of its eyes popped out. Dad said, “Throw it out, boy.” So I did. He
stomped on the rest of the little flat fish and I threw them out also.
My hands got slimey and smelly but I decided it was pretty neat.
There were some prickly fish, too. I had to be careful about grabbing
those because they can make my hands bleed.

If


12

My mom climbed into the boat first, and then my
dad picked me up and handed me to my mom. Dad got in
and started the engine. I sat in the middle of the boat on
a seat and away we went.


At school the kids would pull my braids and sometimes they
would pull my hair ties out and my hair would just fly loose. Then I
would get teased worse and I felt very angry. But I don’t like to fight
or hurt anyone, so I would just try to ignore them.




24

We got a lot of clams that day. When we got back to
the reservation, Dad said we had to give some away.
That’s what we’re supposed to do. We went to some of our
older people’s homes and gave them some clams. They
sure were happy. Kellie and I were glad that we helped
dig all those clams.

We saved some of the clams for ourselves in a
bucket. When we got home Dad put some water in the
bucket and he also poured some cornmeal into the
bucket. I asked him why he did that. Dad explained that
the clams take the cornmeal into their shells and squirt
it out again. This helps clean the sand out of the clams.


My mom is Muckleshoot also. She works in an office and can
cook almost as good as Dad can. I have a big sister named Kellie and
two little sisters, Sunshine and Betsy. Betsy is our little baby. I lost
my appetite when she was born because I thought I wanted a brother
instead. Now, I help feed her and she smiles at me. Being the only
boy in our family makes me pretty special anyway.


My dad is a Muckleshoot Indian and he can speak and under-
stand the tribal language. I am very proud of him. He’s old, thirty
years old. He knows how to fish and he is really strong and smart.




Mom and I would go to the store and people would always call
me “she,” or say, “What a cute little girl.” I would be embarrassed
and sometimes I would say, “I’m not a girl!” Sometimes they would
apologize but sometimes they would laugh.


CLAM DIGGING

CNN Be &

I was about three years old when Mom and Dad took Kellie
and me clam digging. We packed a lunch and drove out to the beach.
My dad had some tubs and shovels.

The sun was warm and we walked down by the water. The
sand was wet and cool and felt good on our bare feet. The clams
squirt water up from under the sand and every once in a while, I
could see a spurt of water jet skyward. Then I knew clams were
underneath.




He made it to the last pole and the next morning he heard someone
inside the lodge say, “Wife, bring in our son. He is poor, tired and weak.” A
woman came out and dragged him into the lodge and then around to the
rear of the lodge, opposite the door. There the man doctored him and fed
him. He cut some meat into four pieces and gave the pieces to the boy.
Every time he would eat a piece another would appear, so there were
always four. He slept inside the lodge that night but no one spoke to him.

Next morning, the old man asked, “Son, why did you sleep around
my lodge? What do you want?” The boy told him his story and asked for
ared otter medicine. The old man said, “That is easy, but first you must get
up before sunrise and go along the shore of the lake among all of my birds.
Catch one and bring it back to me. The birds are tame and will not harm

”

you.


On other days, some boys would say, “Gee, Lance, I wish I could
have long hair like yours.” They especially liked it when the elk
skins were on my braids. Even my friend Tunkie would sometimes

admire my hair.


26

We like to eat our clams steamed. We put them in
boiling water. We also like them fried. We sometimes
freeze them and Mom makes chowder.

In the old days, people used to dry clams in the sun.
Then they can be boiled for soup, or eaten dry.

Kellie and I found out that clam digging can be
great fun even if it is work. I stay away from the
blackberry bushes these days, however, unless I am pick-
ing blackberries.




LONG HAIR

Mom never cut my hair when I was very little, except when I
was climbing trees and got a lot of tree pitch all over my hair. I grew
long braids and sometimes I would wear elk skin hair ties. [hada
white friend named Tunkie who lived near me. He would say,
“Lance, why don’t you cut your hair? It looks like a girl’s.” I didn’t
know what to say, so I just smiled and changed the subject.


16

We finally got to the end of the net and decided to go back to
shore. There were little flat fish flopping around by our feet and my
dad said, “Boy, stomp on those flat fish and throw them back in the
river. You don’t get money for those little fish and they just get
caught in someone else’s net. If you kill them and throw them back
in, other fish and crabs will eat them.”


We dug so much that the day went quickly. We got hungry. By
that time I needed to go to the bathroom. I kept wondering where I
should go. Finally, I had to ask. Dad said, “See where those bushes
are? Well, go up there where no one will see you.”

22


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
Muckleshoot 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 no official endorsement by the National Institute of
Education should be inferred.

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


cut?” She just said, “I'll think about it.” My teacher had already
talked with her about cutting my hair.

You see I got real embarrassed and ashamed about my long
hair. My dad has long hair, but that didn’t help to keep me from
getting teased.

Near the end of summer my mom said, “Let’s wash your hair,
Lance.” Well, she washed my hair and combed it back to tie it. All of
a sudden I felt hair cover my ears and I could see ends of it by my
eyes. My mom had cut my hair off! I was surprised and excited, too.


My dad goes fishing to make money. He catches big fish with a
big net and his boat. Some of the big fish he catches are bigger than
my baby sister Betsy. They would even be too big for her cradle
board!

I watched him get his big nets ready and his boat, too. One day,
he said I could go fishing. My dad, my mom and I went to the river.
We all had to wear boots and warm clothes.

11


THE INDIAN READING SERIES
Stories and Legends of the Northwest

Stories of an Indian Boy
Series V

Developed by the Muckleshoot Curriculum Committee
Charlotte Willians, Coordinator

Written by Elizabeth Bargala

Illustrated by Arlene Sevdy

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



20

Dad picked a likely place and dug a hole. He stood
back and told us to use our hands and dig for clams. We
were kind of scared at first. I thought to myself, “What if
aclam opens up his shell and bites me?”

But I had to do what Dad said, so we stuck our
hands down into the hole and felt for clams. I felt one and
grabbed it. That’s when I got excited and forgot about
being bit. I pulled the clam out and said, “Hey Dad, here’s
one!” Dad laughed and said, “Good boy!”

I threw the clam in the bucket and went back to the
hole. I was surprised to find that the hole had filled with
water. My sister Kellie had pulled out a couple of clams,
too.

Dad dug us another hole, and we got some more
clams. There were some very small clams and some that
were bigger than my hands.


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:

@ Lloyd Smith-Warm Springs
Chairman

© Clement Azure — Devils Lake Sioux

© Walter Moffett — Nez Perce

e Emmett Oliver — Quinault

© Bob Parsley — Chippewa

@ Helen Redbird — Cherokee

@ Max Snow

e Jeanne Thomas — Warm Springs

@ Bill Yellowtail — Crow


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.

i

3.

4.

5.

10.

11.

. 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

|. How the Summer Season Came

Assiniboine Tribe of the Fort Belknap
Reservation

. Little Weasel’s Dream

Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead
Reservation

. Fort Hall Stories

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.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

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

Napi’s Journey

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

Baskets and Canoes
Skokomish Tribe

Warrior People
Blackfeet Tribe


I rushed up the bank in a hurry. I thought I was being a pretty
big guy to go by myself, but then I tipped over backwards right onto
some blackberry vines. Ouch! It felt like a bunch of bees had stung
my behind. Just then my mom came to check on me. She spent some
time picking thorns from my bottom. I guess she saved my day.

23




10

My mom just laughed and held my hair up for me to see. It was
still tied with an elastic band. I was six then and since that day she
keeps my hair short. This is the way I like it for now. I still look at
the hair my mom cut off now and then and I don’t get teased about
my hair anymore.