As I searched the internet this week to explore further the legends of local First Nations people in my region (Cowichan and Malahat peoples) I came across a great website with legends from more than a hundred Native American tribes. Scroll down the page to see the expansive list of links.

As I read through many of their stories, I find that they often incorporate hardship, challenge, and of course an overlying moral. The stories are diverse and fast-moving. They can be poetic and gruesome at the same time and incorporate lands and waterways important to the people.

One of the stories I located through the above website is a Halkomelem legend (Cowichan peoples) called “Who Was Given the Fire“. The story supports ideas of selflessness, humility, and duty. Greed is frowned upon and empathy triumphs in the end.

Finding all of these stories online made me reflect on the ideas presented by Craig Howe, who writes, “Survival in the modern world may be dependent on one’s ability to navigate in cyberspace, but the survival of tribalism could conceivably be contingent on tribal communities’ refusing to connect to the Internet.” I wonder what he would think of this online library of legends? I believe that he would suggest that while spreading the word of First Nations culture is important, something is lost in the medium it is presented within. Howe would contest that reading these stories online does an injustice to the 4 dimensions critical to First Nations culture: spatial, social, spiritual, and experiential. Reading the stories is very different than experiencing the stories, and as an outsider, meaning can be lost or left open to individual interpretation – an alien concept to traditional oral cultures.

I recognize Howe’s views, however, I think we can all learn something through sharing these legends. It is a place to begin sharing. The stories are captivating for all audiences of any generation and through them we begin a dialogue of understanding one another.

Mel Burgess.