The Legend of the Great Flood of the Coast Salish.
Long ago the Khowutzun (Cowichan) people became so numerous that they spread all over the land of the Khowutzun Valley. One year the hunting and fishing became very scarce, and the seven different Khowutzun villages; Somena, Comiaken, Quamichan, Clemclemaluts, Khenipsen, Koksilah, and Kilpahlas,began to quarrel over their traditional boundaries.
The Khowutzunpeople had traditional Medicine men and Medicine woman who had the gift to foretell the future. One morning all of the Medicine men and Medicine woman of all the different Khowutzun tribes were very disturbed by dreams that kept returning to them, for these dreams seemed to predict the destruction of the Khowutzun Indian People.
The Medicine men, and Medicine woman shared their dreams with one another. All had very realistic and disturbing dreams that so much rain fell, that the river rose, and it completely flooded the entire Khowutzun Valley, and that they all drowned, and everything was destroyed.
Unable to understand what these dreams meant, they called a tribal council of Elders and Chiefs to decide what the people should do.
"Let us make a raft, a huge raft of many canoes tied together," suggested one of the Elders at the tribal council.
Many people agreed with him. Others laughed at him, believing that the dreams meant nothing. The people who agreed with the wise Elder set to work to build the raft. The Khowutzun people were very skilled with the uses of Cedar. From cedar bark they wove material, which they made into clothes, weaving waterproof baskets. From cedar logs they made magnificent canoes, the canoes were beautifully crafted capable of long ocean voyages.
The people who agreed with the wise Elder set to work to build the raft. The Indian people were very skilled with the uses of Cedar. From cedar bark they wove material, which they made into clothes, weaving waterproof baskets. From cedar logs they made magnificent canoes, the canoes were beautifully crafted capable of long ocean voyages.
After many months they had made many sturdy ocean-going canoes from some of the largest cedar logs that they could find, and then they tied them together with long ropes of cedar bark. With a huge rope of cedar bark they tied the raft to the top of Mount Provost. They passed the long rope through the middle of a large stone on top of the mountain. The stone that was used as the anchor may still be seen on Mount Provost to this day. All those months that the people were building the great cedar canoes and the long thick cedar planks for the raft, those who did not believe in traditional spiritual dreams laughed at them, and they continuously mocked them.
Nevertheless, the canoes were finally finished and then floated into Khowutzun Bay, all marvelled at the huge beautiful crafted ocean-going canoes, as they were tied together forming one very large raft.
No one had ever seen such a large raft and such huge cedar-bark ropes. Not long after the work was done, the rain began to fall.
When the rain began, the people who had believed the dreams warning took their families and food and placed them on the raft, slowly the raft rose with the water. The drops were as large as hailstones and so heavy that the people tried to stay inside their houses, but the water kept rising. As the rivers overflowed their banks, all the valleys were soon covered with water. The people climbed up on Mount Tzouhalem, but that too was soon under water.
For many days the Indian people lived on the raft, seeing nothing but the rain and water, even the magnificent mountains had disappeared, the great lands of the Coast Salish people was gone from site. The rain continued to fall, the people continuously bailed out the water with their cedar-bark bailers.
The Salish people were very frightened, they sang their traditional songs, and prayed for help, and at long last the rain finally stopped. Slowly the waters went down, and after a time the raft rested on the top of Mount Provost, the cedar rope and the stone anchor had held it.
From the top of the mountain the people watched the floodwaters slowly disappeared until at length they could see the Khowutzun territory once again.
What destruction, their homes were gone, and the beautiful valleys, once green with forest and rich in wildlife, were brown with mud and fallen trees. Both sad and glad, they returned to the places where they had lived. There they began to rebuild their traditional villages, and to take up their old life again.