Stories of the Cahto Tribe

     This collection of oral teaching stories is attributed to the ancestors of the Cahto Tribe. They are largely from a collection at the University of California and derived from the field work of Professor Pliny Earle Goddard in the early 1900s, with line-by-line translations provided by Bill Ray, Daatcaahaal-kwaatc'ileeh (He Who Dives for Hookbill Salmon), of the Cahto tribe. Many times these stories were told as part of a chant or in chorus, thus explaining the repetitive nature of the individual lines. As literature, these Cahto legends and stories, are more poetry than prose.

1. A Prayer for Eels
2. A Supernatural Experience
3. Coming of the Earth
4. Coyote Competes with Grey-squirrels
5. Coyote and the Gambler
6. Coyotes Seen Fishing
7. Coyotes Set Fires for Grasshoppers
8. Coyote Tricks the Girls
9. Coyote Recovers Kangaroo Rat's Remains
10. Dancing Elk
11. Description of Man Eater
12. Duck and Otter Have a Diving Contest
13. Flood and Creation
14. Geese Carries off Raven
15. Grizzly Woman Kills Doe
16. Gopher's Revenge
17. Great Horned Serpent
18. How Coyote and Skunk Killed Elk
19. How Turtle Escaped
20. Making the Valleys
21. The Maneater
22. Milk-snake among the Eels
23. Meadowlark's Breast
24. Placing the Animals
25. Polecat Robs her Grandmother
26. Rattlesnake Husband
27. Securing Light
28. Stealing of Fire
29. Stealing the Baby
30. Supernatural Child
31. Treatment of the Stranger
32. Turtle's Exploit
33. Water-Panther's Escape
34. Water-people and the Elk
35. Wolf Steals Coyote's Wife
36. Yellow-Hammer's Deeds

(Stories based on Cahto oral traditions and beliefs)