The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-30
OLD YANWA EELAN.
The Sun Eats His children whenever He
Can Catch Them.


Old Yanwa Eelan. a government
ward on the Yakima reservation, is a
peculiar character, says the Yakima,
Wash, Times. He is probably so
years of age, and says he is only be-
ginning TO enjoy life He speaks Of the
great battles he has seen. not only be-
tween the Indians and the whites. but
between the warning tribes of indians
themselves. as very pleasurable incl
dents in his life. Eelan teaches his
children" a great deal about the Won
ders OF the heavens.
Hearing that he was In town recent
ly, a Times reporter sought him for an
interview. Seating himself on the sun
ny side of n building the old philoso-
pher began the calculation of an as
Economical theory which he was pleas
ed TO believe had never been thought
out by any one else. Divested OF his
peculiar accent and words, his story
is as follows:
THE sun is the father and the ruler
Of the heavens. He is n big chief. The
moon is his wife and the stars are their
children. The sun eats his children
whenever he can catch them. They
flee before him. and are all the time
afraid when he is passing through the
heavens. when he appears in the
morning. all the stars. his children. fly
blue of the above-and they do not
want to be seen again until he. their
father, is about going to his bed.
Down deep under the ground--deep,
deep under all the grounds a great
hole. All night, when he has passed
over the world. looked down on every
thing and finished his work. he. the
sun. goes into his hole and he crawls
and creeps along till he comes to his
bed i'm the middle part of the earth. So.
then, he. the sun, sleeps there all
night. The hole is so small and the
sun is so big that he cannot turn
around in 1t; so when he has his sleep
he must pass on through the earth
and come out in the east. Then he
goes up into the sky To catch and eat
any OF the stars. his children, he may
find. Thus he lives.
The moon is the mother OF the
heavens and is the wife of lac sun.
She the moon, goes into the same hole
as the sun TO sleep her maps. But she
always has great fear of the sun, her
husband. and when he comes through
the hole to the nobee Uhe teno deep
in the ground to sleep. she gets out
and goes away If he be cross.
she. the moon, has great love for
the stars. her children. and Is happy
TO travel among them in the great
above; and they che children. feel
safe and sing ard dance as she passes
along But the mother cannot help
her children. some of them. from being
swallowed every month IL is ordered
that way by the Great Spirit, who
lives stiil above the place OF all.
Every month the father thus swal-
lows some Of the stars. his children,
ard then the mother. the moon, feels
great sorrow. she must mourn, and
she puts black on her face In sorrow
for her dead children. So Indian Wo-
man puts black on her face when her
baby Is gone. But the dark will wear
away from the face OF that mother, the
moon. little by little every day, and
after time we see again her face all
bright But soon more Of her children
are gone. and again she puts on the
pitch and the black Thus our sor-
rows come and so; thus we have our
Cladness"