Allen Slickpoo tells a Story

For many years now I have used Allen Slickpoo's story telling to entertain and enlighten my classes  and shore up writings.  I met Allen in 1993, my senior year at the University of Texas, doing research for an undergraduate Honors thesis entitled "Words of Prophecy in the Story of the Nez Perce".  My history professor, Chris Miller, advised me to look up Allen Slickpoo when I got up to Kamiah, ID.  Someone at a store in Kamiah directed me to the tribal health clinic  to ask Mary Tall Bull, Allen's daughter, where I could find him.  Mary told me he was at home in the gray house with the red doors on Nez Perce Lane. 

When I found a house with red doors, a man sat outside watching children playing.  I got out of my pickup, proceed up the walk and said, "I'm looking for Allen Slickpoo.  Mary Tall Bull said I could find him up here on Nez Perce Lane."

"Nez Perce Lane or Nez Perce Drive?" the man asked looking confused but with a sly sparkle behind his apparent confusion.  

Taken aback, I looked at the man; I looked at the red Doors.  "You're Mr. Slickpoo, aren't you."

He smiled, nodded and welcomed me to his home.  I knew very little then about the Nez Perce people, only what I had read in my professor's book, Prophetic Worlds: Indians and Whites on the Columbia Plateau.  Al put up with my ignorance, invited me into his gray house and spent the day with me answering my questions and enlightening me on his years as tribal historian. 

His graciousness that day made it one of the most captivating days of my life.  I owe him much for his warm welcome, his writings and his stories.  Here is a story of his I found this past week:

Coyote Breaks The Fish Dam At Celilo

Once Coyote was walking up the river on a hot day and decided to cool himself in the water.  He swam down the swift river until he came to the waterfall where the Wasco people lived.  Five maidens had dwelt there from ancient times.  This was the place where the great dam kept the fish from going up the river.

While he was looking at the great waterfall, Coyote saw a maiden.  Quickly he went back upstream and said, “I’m going to look like a little baby, floating down the river on a raft in a cradle board, all laced up.”  As Coyote was drifting down the river, he cried, “Awaa, awaa.”  The maidens, hearing this quickly swam over, thinking that a baby might be drowning.

The eldest maiden caught it first and said, “Oh, what a cute baby.”  But the youngest maiden said, “That is no baby.  That is Coyote.”  The others answered, “Stop saying that.  You will hurt the baby’s feelings.” Coyote put out his bottom lip as if he were going to cry.

The maidens took the baby home and cared for it and fed it.  He grew very fast.  When he was crawling around one day, he spilled some water on purpose.  “Oh Mothers,” he said, “Will you get me some more water?”

The youngest sister said, “Why don’t you make him go get it by himself?  The river is nearby.”  So the maidens told Coyote to get the water himself.

He began to crawl toward the river, but when he was out of sight, he jumped up and began to run.  The oldest sister turned around and said, “He is out of sight already.  He can certainly move fast.”

“That is because he is Coyote,” the youngest said.

(Drawing from Nez Perce National Historic Park)

 When Coyote reached the river, he swam to the fish dam and tore it down, pulling out the stones so that all the water rushed free.  Then he crawled up on the rocks and shouted gleefully, “Mothers, your fish dam has been broken!”

The sisters ran down and saw it was true.  The youngest maiden said, “I told you he was Coyote.”

Coyote said, “You have kept all the people from having salmon for a long time by stopping them from going upstream.  Now the people will be happy because they will get salmon.  The salmon will now be able to go upriver and spawn.

Allen Slickpoo Sr. (Idaho Public Television Photo)

 This is how Celilo Falls came to be, where the Wasco people are today.  As a result of Coyote tearing down the fish dam, salmon are now able to come up river to spawn on the upper reaches of the Great Columbia River and its tributaries.

Allen Slickpoo Sr. (Nez Perce)

Fishing at Celilo Falls (Nez Perce National Historic Park)