Wishpoosh is the monstrous giant beaver of the myth age, dwelling in Lake Cle-Elum on the eastern slope of the Cascades. Though the lake teemed with fish, he drove away all the Animal People who came to fish there, threatening them and lashing the water. Coyote resolved to end his tyranny, tied his spear to his wrist, and struck him; the two fought as Wishpoosh dragged Coyote down through lake after lake, until the waters burst their banks and roared to the sea, tearing out the channel of the Columbia and its gorge. When at last the beaver was killed, Muskrat helped Coyote haul the carcass ashore, and Coyote cut it into pieces which he flung across the land to make the peoples of the Plateau: the Nez Perce from the head, the Cayuse from the arms, the Yakama from the ribs, the Klickitat from the legs. The story thus joins a monster-slaying to an origin of both the great river and the tribes.