The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ...

8) Why the Quileute honor the deer (and other large mammals) that they kill in the prairies- The
Quileute learned that if they did not express gratitude and appreciation to the mammals that they killed
in the prairies, that they would lose their luck in hunting. In the myth of Deer and Wolf, “a mother deer
and a mother wolf went to the prairie to get fern roots to make into flour.” The mother wolf killed and
ate the mother deer. From that day on, the other deer warned each other whenever the wolf was near
and the wolf had a difficult time finding food. The Quileute honor the deer that submit themselves to the
Quileute hunters (See AR, p.60).
9) Why the Quileute are endogamous, marrying someone from their own tribe- A Quileute woman
sleeping on the prairie wishes to marry and that night her suitor comes and takes her away to live in a
prairie on the other side of the sea. After years she becomes homesick and returns to Quileute country
with her husband to see her parents. She decides not to return and her husband has to return to his country
alone. “That is why the Quillayutes try to marry women of their own tribe” (AR, p.60).
10) Why the Quileute traditionally practiced the levirate, widows marrying a male kinsman of their
dead husband- The first husband of the woman in the story above died. She was pregnant and unable
to feed herself in the isolated place on the immense prairie. “Finally one day when she almost ready to
die, there came a rap at the door, and a young man entered the house…He said, ‘This place belonged to a
relative of mine.’ Upon hearing her story, the young man said, ‘We live at the other end of this large prairie.
I am single. Come with me to my house and be my wife.’” This practice provides a patrilineal social
mechanism for a family to keep the children of their son in the event that the son dies. Rather than their
son’s widow taking their grandchildren away when she returns to her own family, that widow traditionally
marries a brother of her dead husband or some other kinsman of her husband’s. This custom, called
the “Levirate” was common among traditional Quileute, and had its origin in the prairies (AR, p.59).
Unexpected things happen in the prairies. There is a sense of the prairies as the threshold to the other
world, a quality where the line between the visible world and the invisible (spiritual) world is less defined.
In the Quileute cultural narratives, spiritual beings seem to appear often on the prairies. A few
examples are the following occurrences which, albeit, are recognized to have happened in myth times but
exemplify the liminal nature of the prairies:
1) A myth starts: Two young ladies were digging fern roots on the prairies. Night came on and they
retired, but did not go to sleep. As they reclined on their mats they talked and talked the hours away. As
they were conversing, one of them looked up into the heavens and said: “I wish I had that bright star. I
would marry him. Hardly had the words been spoken when two suitors from the starry vault came to
visit them. As soon as they came, one of them said to the lady who had made the wish: “I am the person
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