Banner image courtesy of the High Desert Museum
The Magical, Mystical Area We Call Smith Rock—A Conversation With Wilson Wewa, Paiute Spiritual Leader
June 22, 2020
Magical. Mystical. These are terms many visitors use to describe the unique rock formations of Smith Rock State Park and the sense of awe they inspire. They are also the words Wilson Wewa, a spiritual leader and oral historian of the Paiute Tribe of the Warm Springs Reservation, used when asked what to describe the area. As the last enrolled speaker of the Paiute language in Warm Springs, he alone can still sing the ancient songs of his people at funerals and Washut ceremonies.
Wewa, a great-great-grandson of both Chief Paulina and Chief Weahwewa, two of the most important and influential chiefs of the Northern Paiutes, is a touchstone of his people’s past today. While technology has done great things to help with education of the tribe’s youth, it has also hindered it, confusing them with the interpretations of native people from the perspective of non-native historians, anthropologists, explorers, and more. Wewa says that many times young people from the tribe pushed oral traditions aside, in favor of technologies espoused by the non-native “experts.”
Each October Smith Rock State Park hosts a series of talks in the Welcome Center as part of the Annual Oregon Archaeology Celebration. It was there where Wewa was approached by local historian from the University of Oregon, James Gardner, after Wewa presented a lecture on the legends of the Northern Paiute. Gardner wanted to know if these legends had ever been recorded. Wewa replied, “No, when I die the legends will be gone.”
That statement sparked a relationship that endures to this day and resulted in the publication of Legends of the Northern Paiute four years later, in 2017. It is through this book that Wewa hopes to record the thoughts and stories of his ancestors in a more consumable approach for both the young people of his tribe, as well as “to help instill and bring back the pride that our people had in their identity.”
Wilson Wewa and James Gardner, image courtesy of Gloria Colvin
James Gardner had this to say about this collection of original and never-before-published Northern Paiute legends: “As much as this collection was created for the future, these legends are deeply rooted in the past, in the rich history and culture of the Northern Paiutes. For too long, their tribal history has been little researched and poorly understood.”
It took Wewa over 40 years of traveling for recreation, sightseeing, and connecting with long-forgotten relatives and friends to help gather these legends. With this dedication come his hopes:
Hope that one day these stories can be used to spell out geographical areas, building sites, mountains, rivers, canyons, food-gathering areas and hunting sites of his people.
Hope that one day these stories will once again show that the Oregon desert and the Great Basin were not as inhospitable and bleak as many now see them— that the Northern Paiute were able to make a living using all the resources as gifts from the Creator.
Hope that his people never forget those resources. The Paiute people have been forced to change, but “they can never take the Indian out of our heart.”
What follows are a couple of teasers for the legends that shed light on the area we now call Smith Rock State Park. They are just two of the rich and informative stories that make up Legends of the Northern Paiute.
The Legend of Animal Village, Lady Bighorn Sheep, and a Mother Turned to Stone
Some of the stories that fascinated Gardner at that first presentation where he met Wewa have to do with “Animal Village,” or Smith Rock, as it called now. Wewa first learned about it from his grandmother. A long, long time ago, in the distant past all the animals used to live there, in the valley between the two hills—from elk to eagles, to ground squirrels and bighorn sheep. As the animals came before people, they occupied houses in the valley. The old lady Bighorn Sheep, Koepa, is at the center of the legend, suffering terribly from the disappearance of each of her five sons, who have left in search of food. What ensues with the interaction of the other animals we’ll not divulge here, but if you wonder why you can find all these roots growing here, bitterroot, desert parsley, and haape, as well as all the seed foods, wye and atsa, and the juniper berries, wonder no more. Also curious as why there is such a concentration of interesting rock formations on the hills? You’ll need to read more about the powers of the Coyote.
The Legend of the Epic Battle of the Giant Nuwuzo’ho and Coyote—Fort Rock and Monkey Face
As we said earlier, a very long time ago animals were the people on the earth. They also lived underwater and there were flying beings. Of the animal people on the land and in villages, there was also a huge giant Nuwuzo’ho that walked across the land with a sharp stick that was as long as he was tall. The animal people lived in fear of this giant, whose approach sounded like thunder as he walked in search of people to spear, add to the basket on his back, and then prepare in a most gruesome way to eat. The Coyote, Etsa’a, becomes a part of this story as well, when the animal people need his magical help. We always knew coyotes were clever, and this legend reveals just how clever. The battle between Etsa’a and Nuwuzo’ho provides the backdrop to the geological landscape known today as Fort Rock, as well as the red dirt Connelly Hills just to its south. The salty waters that today form Silver Lake, Summer Lake, and Abert Lake are also part of this story.
Another version of the story speaks to the formation we now know as Monkey Face, here at Smith Rock. In this version, Nuwuzo’ho was drawn to Animal Village by smoke coming from there. After the battle between him and Coyote at Fort Rock, Coyote uses his magic to turn Nuwuzo’ho into rock—into Monkey Face. To this day he is still looking out over the land he used to roam and terrorize.
“I encourage all readers, young and old, to close your eyes and allow yourself to drift back into the past, as you get ready to read these legends. In that way, through the dreams and stories of our people, you’ll more fully understand our people and this work.”
At 63, Wewa is very active in both preserving his culture and protecting his community, especially those where he works for the past several decades, the Warm Springs Senior Center. Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, he chose not to leave the reservation to meet in person at the park for this story and risk exposing his people. We are certainly glad to have had the privilege to tell a bit of his story here.
When asked what visitors to Smith Rock can do to help preserve this magical, mystical place, Wewa said simply, “ Respect the integrity of the land.”
Learn more of Wilson Wewa’s personal history in this video produced by OR Media as part of the University of Oregon History Project prior to the publication of his book.