{"id":20,"date":"2014-04-26T11:32:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-26T11:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifereader.com\/articles\/legends-of-the-pacific-northwest-part2-20"},"modified":"2014-04-26T11:32:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-26T11:32:10","slug":"legends-of-the-pacific-northwest-part2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifereader.com.au\/articles\/legends-of-the-pacific-northwest-part2\/","title":{"rendered":"Legends of the Pacific Northwest (Part2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many of the Indigenous tribes of the world believed (and still believe) that powerful spiritual entities live within and on top of mountains.\u00a0 In the Pacific Northwest this is true as well.\u00a0\u00a0 In the 1830s, an indian guide named Sluisken guided a group of early settlers to the base of what is now known as Mount Rainier, in what is now known as Washington State.\u00a0 The settlers immediately wanted to summit the mountain and their guide became worried about this.\u00a0 The summit of Mount Rainier was believed to have a very malicious spirit in residence there, along with a lake of fire.\u00a0 In fact, the beliefs about this resident at the top of the mountain were so strong among local tribes that they never ventured beyond a certain point on the mountain because of it.\u00a0 In spite of Sluisken’s warnings, the settlers pressed on, determined to get to the mountain’s summit.\u00a0 Of course their guide was convinced he’d never see them alive again.\u00a0 Several days later, the settlers returned and Sluisken could only assume the settlers were actually returning ghosts. This story is a great example of how much power and mysticism the mountains of this region held for it’s native peoples.The volcanos of Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Hood and others were viewed as living, breathing entities who expressed happiness, anger and even jealousy.\u00a0 One of the more interesting stories relating to this a legend about the ancient eruption of Mount Hood in Oregon.\u00a0\u00a0 The area tribes believe that in ancient times, the people who lived around the mountain were as tall as trees and the tallest tree was their revered Chief.\u00a0 One day, the mountain became angry and began hurling rocks and lava downward onto tribe (trees) and their habitat.\u00a0 That night, after much distress over this situation, the great Chief had a dream.\u00a0 In the dream, a shapeshifter (changeling) appeared and told the Chief that he must conquer this angry mountain or his fellow trees would perish.\u00a0 The Chief knew what to do, and the next day he climbed to the top of Mount Hood and began throwing rocks in every direction he could to stop the attack.The mountain responded by hurling rocks back at him and downward towards the trees below.\u00a0 This battle went on for several days until the mountain was defeated by the Chief but not without blackening and destroying the lands below.\u00a0\u00a0 The chief was inconsolable about the loss of the forest and died from sadness.\u00a0 A few members of his tribe, thankfully, had survived the onslaught by sheltering on nearby mountain peaks, but many of them starved and (remember, these are very tall trees), became smaller as a result.\u00a0 These are the same trees that are said to remain here, still tall but not the giants that they used to be.<\/p>\n

It is fascinating to compare local indigenous legends to what you already know about where you live.\u00a0 Almost every place in the world has an important oral or ancient history attached to it’s natural surroundings.\u00a0 What is even more interesting is to visit many of these places and try to imagine the intuitive connection these ancient peoples felt to their world as well.\u00a0 It is also interesting to note, for the Tolkien fans out there, that the characters in this northwest legend are very reminiscent of Treebeard and the Tree “Ents” his middle earth fantasy writings.\u00a0 Ancient legends about trees being living and breathing entites can be found in almost every culture on earth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of the Indigenous tribes of the world believed (and still believe) that powerful spiritual entities live within and on top of mountains.\u00a0 In the Pacific Northwest this is true as well.\u00a0\u00a0 In the 1830s, an indian guide named Sluisken guided a group of early settlers to the base of what is now known as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,15,19,24,29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-empowerment","category-inspiration","category-mind-body-spirit","category-personal-change","category-self-help-improvement","category-spiritual-healing","category-sprituality"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t