"Making All the Crooked Ways Straight": The Satirical Portrait of Whites in Coast Salish Folklore

Abstract

IN THE FIRST PART OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, a visiting anthropologist arrived among the Coast Salish of the Olympic Peninsula to hear and collect their folklore. That white visitor was treated to the tale of the native war-making venture of the century-or so it would appear. In that tale, numerous and magnificently-carved war canoes came down from the North to do battle with the local people amidst much bloodshed and treachery. From the way in which this tale was enjoyed, one might well envision a culture whose military exploits were of paramount importance to it-and a fortunate anthropologist to have come upon so telling a tale in this respect.