Woochkaduhaa

It was at Hood Bay my father’s people were sought out by a supernatural spirit. Da ḵ l ʼ aweidí is what they are called. Their shaman the ancient one, Tleeyaa Keet. He went into the stream first. Into this stream of theirs. So it floated up to the head of the sandbar.

That dog salmon spawned out dog salmon. Its laying its head down (repeatedly, head moving up and down as a dying salmon does) in front of him as he’s walking upstream. Suddenly he heard something calling out.

“ Jaaa….” a mantra to be still, that is how the spawned out dog salmon called to him. “Save me, come here…. Woochkaduhaa” The dog salmon called to him and this is how he received the name Woochkaduhaa; It pursued him.

When he got there he picked it up (very gently like holding a baby) When he picked it up he examined it. He took it back downstream toward home and by early morning it was becoming full of maggots. In front of their place was a deep pool of spring water called Lux’íshi.

It became full of maggots and when it was clean and he had removed all the maggots, he made the dog salmon jump in the deep pool of spring water “ Hei Háa, Hei Háa! “ It left his hands and swam away fast and jumped once, Woochkaduhaa repeated “Hei Haa!” and it swam out of his hands like it was wounded.

So he lifted it out again, examined it, then saw inside of its skull was a maggot. He flipped it out of the dog salmon skull, picked it up, examined it once more and then placed a feather on its head and once again repeated “Hei Haa!” He lifted it up as if the salmon were jumping and repeated this 4 times.

It was as if the salmon wanted to go to the other side the way it was jumping. Then it was gone. It swam on the surface of the deep pool of spring water. Then it was right there, Woochkaduhaa fell over backwards. Then, it came to him, The Spirit of the shaman came to him, The spirit of the shamans’ son came to him.

The Spirit of the salmon, the spirit that brings the salmon, it pursued him. From above the riverbank there is a woman who spends time there, at the foot of the riverbank you can hear her laughter all night.

She asked her friends to keep her company; there she told them “this place keeps me awake.” Four of her family members went there with her above the river bank where the salmon gather: Hood Bay. They all met and joined in the evening.

They walked with her and sat. Suddenly a noise, a sound like plowing through brush, they thought it was a big frog, but there before them stood a woman and the shaman had seen this himself. To the others though they saw a frog on the pond.

It was facing away and with its back towards them it began to undress and Woochkaduhaa jumped on its back as he yelled and screamed to encourage himself to proceed, as he did it was the spirit of the people whose back he was actually on.

He went under water on the back of the people and there too the people were waiting for him in the still of the night. Morning had come and they saw something on the beach, but what was it? Finally one of the men stood up and walked towards it. There he is, he stepped out of the water and back onto land it was him, The Shaman.

Goldbelt Heritage Foundation Department of Education Grant Award A Aan Yatx’u Saani Deiyi, Noble Peoples Path Created by,