The White Man Legend

The White Man Legend. . (The left side of this marker is badly damaged. This is the best interpretation the contributor could make out.), Along time ago my people in the Cascades learned that white men would come. One old man, I believe, learned of it at night. He dreamed. He saw strange people and they spoke to him and showed him strange things. And he heard something that sounded like (missing) song. , In the morning he spoke (missing) the people. And then everybody gathered to hear what the old man (missing) and children - everybody. He told them what he had seen in his sleep at night. The people were glad. They danced every day and every night, they were so glad (missing). , S (missing) will come, the old man said, No longer will (missing). No longer will we use these things of ours. Strange people will bring to us everything strange. They will bring to us (missing)thing (missing) just point it ant anything moving, that (missing) fall down and die. , Ad it turned out (missing) was a gun he spoke of. , (missing) to boil things in. No longer will we (missing). , As it turned out (missing) brought to us what he spoke of. , (missing) never will you make fire by drilling with sticks as before. , Still more were the people glad. They danced with vigor. , Certain small pieces of wood will be brought to us. We will make a fire with them. , As it turned out, it was matches he spoke of. The people danced with more vigor. For days and nights they danced. They were not at all hungry. Truly they did their best dancing. They saw everything he spoke of-ax, hatcher, knife, stove. , 'Strange people will bring us these things. White people with hair on their faces will come from the rising sun. You people must be careful.' , Then my people would jump up and down. They danced their best. , And truly things are just so today, even as the old man dreamed. White people soon brought these things to the people living along the river." , , Walter Miller's father, at the Warm Springs Reservation, used to tell about Coyote's prophecy of the coming of a different race of people. This frequently published prophecy was recorded by Jeremiah Curtin. Lewis and Clark's journals indicate that the men of the expedition were not the first white people seen on the mid-Columbia but they were the first to come from the rising sun.