Tsagaglalal
Chinookan · mortal · Chinookan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Tsagaglalal, 'She Who Watches,' was in Wishram tradition a woman who was chief of a village on the north bank of the Columbia in the time when Coyote was making the world over. When Coyote asked whether she treated her people well and told her that a change was coming in which women would no longer be chiefs, he transformed her into stone set into the cliff, where she would go on watching over her people forever. The account is attached to the great staring rayed face pecked and painted on the basalt above the river, one of the best-known images of Columbia Plateau rock art, so that the myth of the transformed chief and the enduring landmark explain each other.
Domains
- watchfulness
- chieftainship
Powers
- watches over her people forever
Epithets
- Tsagaglalal — She Who WatchesJames D. Keyser, Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau (1992) (secondary)
Sources
- Tsagaglalal was a woman who ruled a Wishram village and was turned to stone by Coyote to watch over her people, an event identified with the famous 'She Who Watches' rock-art image on the Columbia.: Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953) (secondary); James D. Keyser, Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau (1992) (secondary)