Lesson 6 Activity 1: Creating a Legend

• 45 minutes
• Students create a legend that explains the existence of Mount St. Helens.

Key teaching points

• Mount St. Helens has been a fact of life for people living in its shadow ever since humans began populating the Pacific Northwest more than 10,000 years ago. There have been dozens of eruptions during the past 4,500 years.

• Before there were scientific explanations for why volcanoes erupted, people developed stories to explain the presence and behavior of volcanoes.

• The Yakima Indians called the volcano "Tah-one-lat-clah" (Fire Mountain). The Cowlitzpeople called it "Lawetlatla" (Person from Whom Smoke Comes). Its modern name, Mount St. Helens, was given to the volcano in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy.

Materials

Procedures

1. Tell the legend below that was created by the Yakima people. (Before European settlement in the 19th century, the Yakima people had considerable territory on the Yakima and Columbia Rivers in Eastern Washington. Today, descendants of these people live on the Yakima Indian Reservation in south-central Washington.)

   Two tribes lived across the river from one another. Because they were friendly and peaceful tribes, the Great Spirit built a bridge across the river for them. Eventually, however, the tribes began to quarrel. The Great Spirit became angry. To punish the tribes he took away fire. The tribes prayed to the Great Spirit to return fire to them. Finally, the Great Spirit agreed. To restore fire, the Great Spirit had to go to an old woman named Loo-Wit who, because of her goodness, still had fire. Loo-Wit promised the Great Spirit that she would share her fire with the two tribes if the Great Spirit would make her eternally young and beautiful. Fire was restored, and the tribes were peaceful for a short time. The chiefs of both of the tribes, however, fell in love with the beautiful Loo-Wit. The chiefs began to quarrel and went to war. Once again, the Great Spirit became angry and in retaliation he turned the two chiefs into mountains. One became Mount Hood and one became Mount Adams. Because Loo-Wit was so beautiful, the Great Spirit made her into Mount St. Helen—that way she could remain beautiful forever.

2. Students discuss how the legend differs from the way we now explain how volcanoes form. Are there similarities between the legend and scientific explanations?

3. Ask students to imagine that they live in a time and place where there are no scientific explanations for why there is an active volcano near their community. Students create and present orally a short legend to explain why the volcano exists or erupts.

Extension