Chinook Thunderbird totem pole

Chinook Thunderbird totem pole

How were the first Chinook born?

In the beginning, the first men came down from the sky. They were Thunderbird’s children. Thunderbird laid eggs on Saddle Mountain (in modern Oregon).

Early Chinook history
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Then a giantess – a really enormous woman – rolled five of those eggs down the mountain. Five men, each a different color, were born from those five eggs. So then they were in the valley.

History of eggs

Where did Chinook women come from?

When the men were in the valley, they found women there and pulled them out of the rocks. That was the beginning of the Chinook people.

(This is only one version of this story, and there are many others.)

More about the Chinook
A Navajo Creation Story

Bibliography and further reading about the Chinook creation myth:

Inuit creation myth
More Native American creation myths
Native American religionD
More about Native Americans
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