Looking back to the past when the Klicitats
In the shadow of the three great mountain caps;
Came fearful there - to warn the man
Who came to log on their sacred land;
Chief Sagahalie, great chief-of-chiefs
Had long ago to keep the peace;
Made this valley the "Holy Land"
And a burial ground to the Klicitats.
And now in peace they come to beg
That white man leave their sacred place;
And to not bring anger to sleeping Gods
That lay beneath the ground they logged.
They told their legend of a powerful chief
Of his quarrelsome sons that could never be pleased;
And the anger he had for the heartache they caused
He ordered them come, stand in shame before all!
He then shot an arrow to the north and the west
And ordered his sons, go and find where they rest;
And make there your tribe and with your brother keep peace
Then a great river he put to flow calmly between.
A bridge spanned the river, "The Bridge of the Gods"
Where the witch-woman dwelled in her shack made of logs.
She held there the power of the world in a flame
She controlled all the fire, the Klicitats claim;
The great chief was so pleased that he went to the witch
And for a small sum of fire, he would grant her a wish;
So she wished to be young - to be beautiful too
And the powerful chief granted them true.
His sons saw her beauty too great to resist
That they failed to remember, she was "Loowit" the witch;
They both fell in love with the, "Princess of Fire"
And they fought for her heart 'til their father grew tired;
In anger he flew in a madness of shouting
He cursed at his sons and he turned them to mountains;
Then he turned on the "witch" who possessed all the fire
And left there a mountain with a spark to remind her.
He called then his sons, "Mt. Adams and Hood"
And there to the west the witch woman stood;
Her face lights the furnal while she screams like a hellion
She's the "Princess Loowit," and she's known as
"St. Helens."
By Roxann Gess Smith - Feb. 10th, 1975 ©
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