Synopses & Reviews
Honne, the Spirit of the Chehalis embodies a narrative tour de force that interweaves episodes (that stand alone in ordinary tellings) into an integrated series of installments. This collection of Salish stories features the Changerand#8217;s efforts to successively transform a proto-being or spirit into the present form of a named species (deer, owl, shark, sea otter, and others). Additional stories describe how the Changer allowed Bear or Ant to apportion day and night; permitted Frog to schedule tides; and taught humans how to cook meat and clams, hunt with a bow, dry berries, cure sickness, settle communities, and prepare for the afterworld.
and#160;
These tales are told by George Sanders, a master storyteller whose family included chiefs of the Nisqually Indian tribe, which lives south of what is now Tacoma, Washington. As part of the oral tradition, these stories were rarely heard by those outside the area until Katherine Van Winkle Palmer, daughter of the local doctor, collected them for posterity.
Jay Miller introduces this new edition with a close look at the linguistic complexity of the region, which testifies to the rich diversity of the Americas before epidemics and dislocations took their devastating toll. By weaving together these masterful installments, Honne, the Spirit of the Chehalis provides an evocative example of interwoven Salish oral literature at its best.
Review
"This collection of Chehalis folktales is a welcome addition to the body of material about the Indians of the Northwest which is being gradually accumulated."--Erna Gunther, Washington Historical Quarterly
Synopsis
First published in 1934, this collection of tales was recorded and edited by Thelma Adamson (1901and#8211;83), a student of Franz Boas and one of the first women to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in the Pacific Northwest. A major contribution to our knowledge of western Washington Salish oral traditions, Folk-Tales of the Coast Salish contains 190 texts from nineteen consultantsand#8212;most collected in English or in English translation. The 155 stories represent Upper Chehalis and Cowlitz Salish narrative traditions, primarily myths and tales, and constitute the largest published body of oral literature for either of these groups. Adamson included as many as four variants of the same tale-type, and Adele Froehlichand#160;prepared a useful forty-three-page section of abstracts with comparative notes from eight regional text collections. Folk-Tales of the Coast Salish provides a rich data source for those interested in the content and comparative analysis of Native texts told in English. With few exceptions, the tales refer to the time and#8220;when all the animals were people.and#8221;and#160;This new edition enhances Adamsonand#8217;s seminal work with the inclusion of a biographical sketch of Adamson and of her friend and noted ethnomusicologist George Herzog, who produced the appended music transcriptions.
About the Author
George Sanders (1880and#8211;1959) was a Chehalis (with Nisqually and Cowlitz) Indian who lived as a logger and farmer. Katherine Van Winkle Palmer (1895and#8211;1982) was a distinguished geologist and paleontologist who founded the Paleontological Research Institute. Jay Miller is a linguist and anthropologist and is a former associate director of the Dand#8217;Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History at the Newberry Library in Chicago. He is the author of several books for adults and children, including Lushootseed Culture and the Shamanic Odyssey (Nebraska, 1999).