Local historian, Bill Layman, invites us all to a book release party for Red Star
Blue Star Defeats Spexman at the museum on December 19th, featuring author and Wenatchi/P’squosa Colville Tribal elder, Randy Lewis. Check out the flyer here: Red Star Blue Star Book Release
Read Bill Layman’s press release below:
Randy Lewis & Bill Layman
Prior to 1994 anyone looking at Saddle Rock simply saw a saddle and left it at that. Sculptor Rich Beyer learned that the Wenatchi/P’squosa Indians recognized the twin spires as Black Bear and Grizzly Bear, turned into stone by Coyote. He commemorated the bears story through an outdoor sculpture at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School.
The word on the streets was that the fabled Native American trickster Coyote was back in town. He could be seen in other Beyer sculptures – reading a candy wrapper in front of the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center and at Walla Walla Park where he is leading salmon upriver.
These days many know the two bear Saddle Rock story. Less well-known, however, are other regional story-bearing landmarks that have escaped our attention. Colville tribal member Randy Lewis (K’ayaxan) means to change that. In 2018 Randy was in fact the character of Coyote leading the salmon along the parade route of the 2008 Apple Blossom Festival. Randy remembers a seed being planted for his return to Wenatchee at that moment. The seed was always there. Randy spent his early years in the 1950s living with his grandfather on Wenatchee Heights. A descendant of Sam Miller of Miller/Freer trading post, Randy knew first-hand the stories of this place in the language of his people. He vividly recalls his grandfather Jerome Miller and his mother Mary Marchand telling him he needed to move closer to the Colville Reservation to preserve the Wenatchee/P’squosa’s heritage. He did just that this past summer when he pulled up his stakes from Seattle to live in Wenatchee.
On the road to Malaga, two pillars stand against the skyline. From time immemorial they have been known as the Owl Sisters. The frightening sisters grabbed young ones and stuck them into their baskets so they could be roasted.
At Peshastin Pinnacles salmon leap towards the sky. In the early time Coyote had noticed that the People here were hungry because the salmon were being kept from going upriver by four powerful sisters who selfishly dammed the Columbia near its mouth. Coyote changed himself into a cute baby whom the sisters adopted, and while the sisters were away, broke the dam, freeing the fish to travel upriver.
Above Rocky Reach, Abraham Lincoln’s face is seen above the river. Native People see Chief Eagle. Here a boy once loved to feed eagles. When his people left him to go to the mountains, the eagles brought the boy food, furs and treasures. After their return the villagers realized he possessed great power and made him a great chief.