A Totem Pole History: The Work of Lummi Carver Joe Hillaire

30 The Mink Family and the Raccoon Family

249 30 The Mink Family and the Raccoon Family A Folktale Told by Pauline Hillaire This story was recorded by Gregory Fields at the Center for Spirituality & Sustainability, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, June 26, 2008. This is a story from long ago, when there were no people on the land, just animals. Only the creatures that creep around were here. Can you imagine not a single human being? Not a single human being, no matter where you looked. But the animals were happy. There was a little inlet bay. Over here lived the raccoons, and over here lived the mink. Well, the mink had a good reputation. They were sleek, their fur was just sleek. Oh, every day they went to the water, and they brushed their hair, and they washed their eyes, and they washed the food from around their mouth, and their mother said, “That is what will keep you young. You keep the food away from your mouth.” And so they did that every day, and they’d splash four times. That was a sacred number. Then they’d come in and sit at their table, and they’d eat the breakfast that their mother cooked. They sat down and thanked their mother for the food, and they were so happy to eat the sweet porridge that she had 250 Pauline Hillaire mixed for them. They eat wild things—berries, sprouts, clams, crabs—that’s what was placed before the mink babies. Well, over on the other side of the bay were the raccoons, and they were mischievous, oh, they were mischievous. Every day you could see them tossing and turning, and bouncing in the air, and sassing their mother, and sassing their father. Oh my, it was a riot when you looked over there, but over here at the home of the mink, everyone was peaceful and quiet. After the mink ate, it was time for them to go out to the beach, to go onto the beach and walk softly. They were ordered, “You walk softly on the beach, because if you run and jump on the beach, you’re going to scare every clam, you’re going to scare every crab, and you won’t have anything to eat if you scare them away.” And so they’d walk just normal and soft all along the beach, and suddenly they’d get a clam; oh, it was a nice fat clam. So they fed it to the mother, and they fed the other one to the father. And the children were happy, going and looking, looking all over for something to eat. You know how animals are: their heads are down, always down, looking for something to eat. Then the father mink said, “Come over here, come over here; there’s a rock over here with lots of mussels on it. I want you to learn these trails. Here are the clams over here, and here are some mussels over there.” And the mother mink said, “Oh, mussels are so sweet and juicy this time of year; they’re sweet and they’re juicy.” And so the young mink went and ate their fill of mussels, and they had a little basket, they put some spare in there for supper, and they covered it with thimbleberry leaves. They kept on going: they ate the clams, they ate the mussels, they ate the crabs, and not one of them ate in a sloppy manner. Mink have good reputations, so they ate dainty. They went and they got a fish, and the little mink said, “I can catch fish.” You know what he did? He stuck his toe in the water. There was a pool because the tide was out. Some water was caught in this little pool, and there was one fish in it, and they could see it under the seaweed. It was trying to hide, but they could see it. And they said, “Well, we just have to be real quiet. It will get used to us, it will get used to us.” And the little boy mink stuck his toe in. Every now and then he’d stick his toe in again, and the fish got curious; they’re curious creatures, you know. He’d stick his toe in, The Mink Family and the Raccoon Family 251 and pretty soon the fish got closer and closer. There was seaweed that...