Eagle
Chinookan · numen · Chinookan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Eagle is a chiefly figure of the myth-age, keen-sighted and grave, often set as leader over the other animal-people. In the widely told mid-Columbia narrative he and Coyote journey together to the land of the dead to bring the departed home. Eagle's careful discipline nearly carries the recovery through, but Coyote's impatience breaks the condition on which it depends, and the dead are lost again, so that death becomes permanent for the human people who follow. The pairing casts Eagle as the wise elder against Coyote's restless folly, a recurrent structure in Chinookan storytelling.
Domains
- sky
- chieftainship
Powers
- soars and sees far
- journeys to the land of the dead
Relations
- companion: CoyoteThe two travel together to recover the dead; Eagle's care is undone by Coyote's haste.Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953), 'Coyote and Eagle in the Land of the Dead' (secondary)
Sources
- Eagle is a chiefly, far-seeing myth-age leader who journeys with Coyote to the land of the dead, his prudence contrasting with Coyote's impatience, which fixes death as permanent.: Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953) (secondary); Edward Sapir, Wishram Texts (1909) (primary)