Once, Coyote was walking along on a hot day. Then he saw a river and said, "Oh, let me cool myself in the water." And he swam down the swift river. After a while, he came ashore and mosquitoes just swarmed all over him; so he named the place by saying, "This will be Mosquito-Place." He swam down the river a little farther, then got out again. "Oh, this is a nice sunny slope; they will call this place E-la-kaht Pot-kene-ka (Sunny Slope). He went a little farther until he came to the waterfall, near where the Wasco people live. Five Maidens had dwelt there from ancient times. This was the place where the great dam kept the fish from passing up the stream.

Then, suddenly, he saw a Maiden. Quickly he went back upstream a ways and said, "Let me look like a little baby, floating down the river on a raft in a Flathead-type baby board, all laced up." And it became so.

As Coyote was drifting down, he cried, "Awaaa, awaaaa." The Maidens, hearing this, quickly swam over, thinking that a baby might be drowning. The eldest Maiden caught it first and said, "Oh, what a cute baby."

But the youngest Maiden said, "That is no baby. That is Coyote."

The others answered, "Stop saying that. You will hurt the baby's feelings." The Coyote put out his bottom lip as if he were about to cry.

The Maidens took the baby home and cared for it and fed it. He grew very fast. When he was crawling around one day, he spilled some water on purpose. "Oh, Mothers," he said. "Will you get me some more water?"

The youngest sister said, "Why don't you make him go and get it himself. The river is nearby." So the Maidens told the Coyote to get the water himself.

He began to crawl toward the river, but when he was out of sight, he jumped up and began to run. The oldest sister turned around and said, "He is out of sight already. He certainly can move fast."

"That is because he is Coyote," the youngest said.

When Coyote reached the river, he swam to the fish dam and tore it down, pulling out the stones so that all the water rushed free.

Then he crawled up on the rocks and shouted gleefully, "Mothers, your fish dam is broken down!" The sisters ran down and saw that it was true.

The youngest Maiden just said, "I told you he was Coyote." Coyote said, "You have kept all the people from having salmon for such a long time by keeping them from going upstream. Now the people will be happy because they will get salmon. Now salmon will go straight upriver and spawn."

This is how Celilo (Oregon) came to be where the Wasco people are today. Because Coyote tore down those fish dams, salmon come up river to this day to spawn on the upper reaches of the Great Columbia River and its tributaries.

From: Nu Mee Poom Tit Wah Tit, by Allen Slickpoo, Nez Perce Tribe, 1972