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Legends

The First Ship

An old woman in a Clatsop village near the mouth of Big River mourned the death of her son. For a year she grieved. One day she stopped her crying and took a walk along the beach where she had often gone in happier days. As she was returning to the village, she saw a strange something out in the water not far from shore. At first she thought it was a whale. When she came nearer, she saw two spruce trees standing upright on it. "It's not a whale," she said to herself, "It's a monster."

When she came near the strange thing that lay at the edge of the water, she saw that its outside was covered with copper and that ropes were tied to the spruce trees. Then a bear came out of the strange thing and stood on it. It looked like a bear, but the face was the face of a human being.

"Oh, my son is dead," she wailed, "and now the thing we have heard about is on our shore."

Weeping, the old woman returned to her village. People who heard her called to others, "An old woman is crying. Someone must have struck her." The men picked up their bows and arrows and rushed out to see what was the matter.

"Listen!" an old man said.

They heard the women wailing, "Oh, my son is dead, and the thing we have heard about is on our shore."

All the people ran to meet her. "What is it? Where is it?" they asked.

"Ah, the thing we have heard about in tales is lying over there." She pointed toward the south shore of the village. "There are two bears on it, or maybe they are people."

Then the Indians ran toward the thing that lay near the edge of the water. The two creatures on it held copper kettles in their hands. When the Clatsop arrived at the beach, the creatures put their hands to their mouths and asked for water. Two of the Indians ran inland, hid behind a log awhile, and then ran back to the beach. One of them climbed up on the strange thing, entered it, and looked around inside. It was full of boxes, and he found long strings of brass buttons. When he went outside to call his relatives to see the inside of the thing, he found that they had already set fire to it. He jumped down and joined the two creatures and the Indians on shore.

The strange thing burned just like fat. Everything burned except the iron, the copper, and the brass. Then the Clatsop took the two strange looking men to their chief.

"I want to keep one of the men with me," said the chief.

Soon the people north of the river heard about the strange men and the strange thing, and they came to the Clatsop village. The Willapa came from across the river, the Chehalis and the Cowlitz from farther north, and even the Quinault from up the coast. And people from up the river came also -- the Klickitat and others farther up. The Clatsop sold the iron, brass, and copper. They traded one nail for a good deerskin. For a long necklace of shells they gave several nails. One man traded a piece of brass two fingers wide for a slave. None of the Indians had ever seen iron or brass before. The Clatsop became rich selling the metal to other tribes. The two Clatsop chiefs kept the two men who came on the ship. One stayed at the village called Clatsop, and the other stayed at the village on the cape.
 
 

* Reported by Franz Boas in 1894
 

Ancient history also speaks of the first contact between the white men and the Native American Indian people many, many centuries ago – during the roman times. Well into the roman occupation of England and the British Isles, a roman historian speaks of time when a strange but very simple-looking canoe was found washed ashore on the north-west coast of Scotland. The two occupants found with it were described as brown skinned people who were near starving to death, having been blown way off-course somehow during their journey, and who, with signs, spoke of a great, great land -- over the other side of the ocean. They tried to make themselves understood and wanted help to go back. However the roman soldiers, unable to understand them, were unwilling to believe their stories of a land where the food was abundant and the animals roamed wild, much less provide two strangers with a boat to go back on -- took hold of them, bound them and sent them either to Rome or a different part of England to be used as slaves.