Quileute Legends | Twilight | New Moon

Thunderbird vs Whale

Long since, in that respect was a sad time in the earth of the Quillayute. For days and days, a violent storm blew. Rainfall and hail then sleet and snowfall descended upon the earth. The large hailstones killed many natives. The Quillayute were forced from their sea-coast villages to the great prairie, which comprised the peak part of their land.

In that location the tribe became lean and weak from famish. The hailstones destroyed the ferns, the camas, and the berries.  The rivers covered by ice and the tribe could not fish. Violent storms swayed the sea therefore the fishermen could not go out in their canoes for deep-sea fishing. Before long, the tribe consumed all the grass and roots on the prairie for food; at that place no food was left. As children perished without nutrient, the strongest and most courageous of their fathers could do nothing. They called upon the Great Spirit for help, but no help came.

Finally the Great Chief of the Quillayute met with his tribe. He was old and wise. “Take comfort, my tribe,” the Chief said. “We will call again upon the Great Spirit for help. If no help comes, then we will know it is His will that we die. If it is not His will that we live, then we will die bravely, as brave Quillayute have always died. Let us talk with the Great Spirit.”

The weak and hungry tribe sat in silence while the Chief spoke with the Great Spirit, who had looked kindly upon the Quillayute for hundreds of years.

When his prayer had finished, the Chief turned again to his tribe. “Now we will wait for the will of the One who is wise and all-powerful.”

The tribe waited. No one spoke. There was nothing but silence and darkness. All of a sudden, came a great noise, and flashes of lightning cut the darkness. A deep whirring sound, like colossus wings flapping, came from the place of the setting sun. All of the natives gazed toward the sky above the sea as an immense, bird-shaped beast flew towards them.

This bird was greater than any they had ever seen. Its wings, from tip to tip, were twice as long as a war canoe.   It had an immense, curved beak, and its eyes radiated like fire. The tribe saw that its large claws held a living, giant whale.

In silence, they observed while Thunderbird – for so the bird was called by everyone -cautiously lowered the whale to the earth before them.  The thunderbird flew high in the sky and returned to the thunder and lightning it had come from. Perhaps it flew back to its perch in the hunting grounds of the Great Spirit.

Thunderbird and Whale kept the Quillayute from dying. The tribe acknowledged that the Great Spirit had answered their prayers. The tribe shall never forget that gift from Thunderbird, never forget that it ended long days of hunger and death. For on the prairie near their village are large, round stones that the grandfathers say are the hardened hailstones of that violent storm long since passed.