Travel the Lewis and Clark Trail

There were swimming races and canoe races on the river.  There would be bow - and - arrow contests, horse racing, dancing, and feasting.  The whole crowd was merry, for both the maiden and the young warrior were loved by their people.

A sickness came over the village.  Children and young people were the first victims; then strong men became ill and died in one day.  The wailing of women was heard throughout the Multnomah village and the camps of the guests.  "The Great Spirit is angry with us," the people said to each other.  The head chief called together his old men and his warriors for counsel and asked gravely, "What can we do to soften the Great Spirit's wrath?"

At last one old medicine man arose.   "There is nothing we can do.  If it is the will of the Great Spirit that we die, then we must meet our death like brave men.  The Multnomah have ever been a brave people."

The other members of the council nodded in agreement- all except one, the oldest medicine man.  He had not attended the wedding feast and games, but he had come in from the mountains when he was called by the chief.  He rose and, leaning on his stick, spoke to the council.  His voice was low and feeble. "I am a very old man, my friends; I have lived a long, long time.  Now you will know why.  I will tell you a secret my father told me.  He was a great medicine man of the Multnomah, many summers and many snows in the past. "When he was an old man, he told me that when I became old, the Great Spirit would send a sickness upon our people.  All would die, he said, unless a sacrifice was made to the Great Spirit.

 Some pure and innocent maiden of the tribe, the daughter of a chief, must willingly give her life for her people.  Alone, she must go to a high cliff above a Big River and throw herself upon the rocks below.  If she does this, the sickness will leave us at once."

Then the old man said, "I have finished; my father's secret is told.   Now I can die in peace."

At last the chief lifted his head.  "Let us call in all the maidens whose fathers or grandfathers have been headmen."
 

Soon a dozen girls stood before him, among them his own loved daughter.   The chief told them what the old medicine man had said.  "I think his words are the words of truth," he added.
 

Then he turned to his medicine men and his warriors, "Tell our people to meet death bravely.  No maiden shall be asked to sacrifice herself.  The meeting has ended."

 

The daughter of the head chief sometimes wondered if she should be the one to give her life to the Great Spirit.  But she loved the young warrior - she wanted to live.

A few days later she saw the sickness on the face of her lover.  Now she knew what she must do.  She cooled his hot face, cared for him tenderly, and left a bowl of water by his bedside.  Then she slipped away alone, without a word to anyone.

You are angry with my people.  Will you make the sickness pass away if I give you my life?  Only love and peace and purity are in my heart.  If you will accept me as a sacrifice for my people, let some token hang in the sky.  Let me know that my death will not be in vain and that the sickness will quickly pass."
 

Just then she saw the moon coming up over the trees across the river.  It was the token.

She closed her eyes and jumped from the cliff.

They were full of joy.  Once more there was laughter in the village and in the camps of the guests.

Suddenly some asked, "What caused the sickness to pass? 

Did one of the Maidens-?"

 

Once more the chief called the daughter and granddaughters of the headmen to come before him.  This time one was missing.

Other people followed.  On the rocks below the high cliff they found the girl they all loved. 
There they buried her.
 

Then her father prayed to the Great Spirit, "Show us some token that my daughter's spirit has been welcomed into the land of the spirits."
 

Almost at once they heard the sound of water above.  All the people looked up to the cliff.  A stream of water, silvery white, was coming over the edge of the rock.  It broke into floating mist and then fell at their feet.  The stream continued to float down in a high and beautiful waterfall.

Sometimes in winter the spirit of the brave and beautiful maiden comes back to see the waterfall.

Dressed in white, she stands among the trees at one side of Multnomah Falls. There she looks upon the place where she made her great sacrifice and thus saved her lover and her people from death.

Reported by Ella Clark in 1953, from the Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Ella E. Clark.
Copyright 1953 by the Regents of the University of California
Source:  Indian Myths and Legends (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)
Selected and Edited by Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz, Copyright 1984

Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

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