Trails of Western Canada by Janick Lemieux and Pierre Bouchard
“Long ago, this land began to shake and rumble. Nature’s harmony had been upset. It started by the river, as one child took a humpback salmon from the water and slit open its back. Then he stuck sticks in the wound, lit them and made the salmon swim. The children were amused to see the fish swim up river with smoke coming from its back. The child slit open another salmon and stuck a piece of shale into its back. Then he made it swim, but the humpback floated on its side, weighed down by the shale. The children laughed, despite the elders’ warnings, and the ground rumbled. . . . Eventually, a noise like thunder was heard, the mountains broke open and fire gushed forth until it seemed that all rivers were afire. The people tried to escape, but as the fire came down the river, the forest was set ablaze and only a few of them got away. The cause of the conflagration was said by the shamans to be entirely due to the anger of the spirit world at the torture of the salmon,” recites our Native guide, Teddy, standing right on the edge of the crater where earth’s fire oozed out “long ago.”
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PEDAL June 2010
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