Woochkaduhaa

It was at Hood Bay my father’s people were sought out by a

supernatural spirit. Daḵlʼaweidí 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 84.356A

Aan Yatx’u Saani Deiyi, Noble Peoples Path

Created by,