The old people used to tell us that we had not always lived in the Thompson River country. At one time very long ago our ancestors lived in a very distant country, and reached our present country after a series of migrations extending over a great many years. In the beginning, our ancestors lived at some place inland, south, or south east from here, on the far- side of a great body of fresh water. This was their original home. After a time a strange and powerful people came to their country and attacked then,. There was much war, and our people were vanquished by the enemy. Many were killed, and at last our ancestors were surrounded on all sides. They had to cross the lake, or be exterminated.
In those days the Indians had no canoes, and I do not know how they crossed, whether they used rafts, or logs, or magic blankets, or a magic belt, or whether they crossed on the ice. I think the old people had somewhat different accounts. I do not know who their chief was. It may have been Coyote, or Spetlemu’lox, or some noted man. Their enemies could not follow them. For a long time they lived on this side of the lake; but at last their enemies reached them, and the war was resumed. They left at once, and travelled a long distance until they reached the banks of a large river. Some people think this was the Columbia River, but they are not certain of this. Here they remained a long time. I think they were attacked at this place by enemies, but I am not sure. They crossed the river, and lived on this side. Here they stayed a long time; but eventually they quarrelled and separated, one half of the people moving north, and the other half remaining or moving in the opposite direction, I do not remember which. As some relate it, there were four stops and four migrations. The fourth one must have been the moving of the northern division to the Thompson River. They probably continued travelling until they reached Lytton, and settled there, for it seems that in later days the tribe spread from there until all the settlements belonging to our people were occupied. Recently I asked some of the oldest people of my band regarding the story, but none of them knew it. Some of them said they had heard it. Probably some of the old people at Lytton may know the full version.
An Indian from Spences Bridge, who had heard the story when young and had often heard mention of it, thought that the people had crossed the lake on a log which Coyote caused to grow across the water, in the same way as he made the tree grow on which his son ascended to the sky, and the people walked along on it as on a bridge.
In a letter written to me a few years ago by a SLaxai'ux chief, since
deceased, he stated that his ancestors had been driven away from the shores of a large lake, and had been harassed by enemies, who followed their migrations. Every now and then the enemies caught up with them, drove them from their villages, and harassed them as before. He said this had continued up to the present day, and he called the whites the enemies of his race. It was not clear whether he meant that the whites were also the enemies who had attacked his remote ancestors, but that might be inferred.A chief had many horses, and among them a stallion which his wife often rode. The woman and stallion became enamoured of each other and cohabited. The woman grew careless of her household duties, and always wanted to look after the horses. When the people moved camp and the horses were brought in, it was noticed that the stallion made right for the woman, and sniffed about her as stallions do with mares. After this she was watched. When her husband learned the truth, he shot the stallion. The woman cried, and would not go to bed. At daybreak she was gone, no one knew where. About a year after this it was discovered that she had gone off with some wild horses. One day when the people were travelling over a large open place, they saw a band of horses, and the woman among them. She half partly changed into a horse: her pubic hair had grown so long that it resembled a tail. She also had much hair on her body, and the hair of her head had grown to resemble a horse's mane. Her arms and legs had also changed considerably; but her face was still human, and bore some resemblance to her original self. The chief sent some young men to chase her. All the wild horses ran away; but she could not run so fast as they, and was run down and lassoed. She was brought into her husband's lodge; and the people watched her for some time trying to tame her, but she continued to act and whinny like a horse. At last they let her free. The following year they saw her again. She had become almost entirely horse, and had a colt by her side. She had many children afterwards.
1 From Chief TedlEni'tsa. This story is probably of Indian origin, but it bears some resemblance to the wanderings of the children of Israel in the Wilderness, and their crossing of the Red Sea. It also has a resemblance to the harassing of Indian tribes farther east by the whites, and by each other, and the gradual pushing of tribes towards the west or northwest. The belief is general in the tribes that part of the Thompson-speaking people live to the south, somewhere near the Columbia River. The tradition may refer to early Salish migrations. Compare also Necootimeigh (Ross, 1855), a tribe formerly living at Dalles of the Columbia in Oregon (Handbook of American Indians, p. 50). This is the name applied by all the interior Salish tribes to the Thompson people, and seems to give support to the preceding traditions.
2 The narrator said he thought there was a little more to this story, but he did not remember it. He said the story was common to both the Thompson and the Okanagon. He had first heard it hmself from an Okanagon over fifty years ago; but it was probably in bogue among the Thompson before that, although he had not heard it. - Blackfoot PaAM 2 : 152; Arapaho FM 5 : 247; Pawnee MAFLS 8 : 294, 358; Gros Ventre PaAM 1 : 114; Shoshoni PaAM 2 : 294; Assiniboine PaAM 4 : 224.
