Koluskap and Beaver

English: , Koluskap and Beaver , The following is a creation story kept by the storytellers of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) about their ancestors in the communities of the Wolastoq (St. John River) where it meets the Bay of Fundy., For Wolastoqiyik, Koluskap is the traditional ancestor of all their peoples who lived with them and cared for them. The stories of Koluskap are legends, passed through thousands of generations, about the world in the beginning and the people who lived here then. [Information from Patricia Bernard, Madawaska-Maliseet First Nation, 1996], In times long ago, beaver were huge animals that the Wolastoqiyik feared. One giant beaver lived in a great lodge on an island in a smaller river joining the mighty Wolastoq (St. John River) that flowed from the north., Where the mouth of the Wolastoq foamed into rapids as it met the ocean bay, Beaver decided to build a dam. You can see those rapids from here, for they are now called Reversing Falls., The people of the Wolastoq watched angrily, as their beautiful camping grounds farther up the river valley were gradually flooded. Soon the grounds would disappear under the water, the ancestors feared, then the whole country. They took their fears to the powerful Koluskap who listened to their pleas., Koluskap saw the damage Beaver's dam was already causing. Koluskap called on Beaver to take down his dam , once, twice, three times , but Beaver refused. Then, with one blow of his great club, Koluskap smashed the dam and the river rushed out once again to the bay., The wild surge of water carried along a piece of the dam right past the shoreline. It finally came to rest as an island in the bay. We now know it as Partridge Island., Koluskap's tremendous blow made other changes to the river. Some of the floodwater farther up the Wolastoq did not drain out, but remained, creating broad and shining lakes for the Wolastoqiyik to use forever after. Also, the force of the blow broke off a piece of split rock beside the rapids. If you look along the right shore of the Reversing Falls you can still see that rock today., Koluskap was determined that beaver should never again have the power to endanger his people's lives. So he made beaver, forever after, animals of small size., This text was edited by Maliseet Consultant Doreen Saulis. ,