Why Elk Soup?

The interior Salish people had many stories about survival and how they had to work together and take care of each other to survive. Sometimes, our stories had animal characters like Speelya (Coyote) or Tsa sa lax (mosquito), who made bad choices and learned hard lessons. We taught our children morals and tribal values through stories and oral history. The Spokane Tribe has a story that Chief Sam Boyd told in 1935 about “Elk Soup,” and my grandmother Ida Peone-Boyd interpreted it. This story is not a sqalumpt (fable) but an actual oral history of “How the Spokane People Were Saved from Starving.”

​

One winter long ago, the people camped down on the Spokane River. About 10 families camped along the river, and they started getting short of food toward spring. The snow was knee-deep, and it was too soft to travel and to go hunting. Even snowshoes would sink about a foot. One man from the Sinxtctsli (Lakes Indians) had a Spokane wife from this village, and he was a good hunter. All the people were so close to starvation that they were too weak and lying around. The Lakes man was near death but resolved himself to go hunting. He said he had better die trying to get game for his wife and the people. So, he sat up with difficulty and pulled on his moccasins with fur inside. His wife asked what he was doing. He said he would rather go out and try to hunt than die there, not trying. The wife said she would go with him. He tried to tell her no, but she said it would be better than to die worrying about him. When he got up, he almost fell over. He was so weak. She told her father they were going and that she wasn’t going to stay and die away from her husband.

​

They put on their snowshoes and left. He would walk a little way and stand for a while, then walk on – every little while, he’d stop to catch his breath. Then they had to start climbing the mountain and had not gone a mile when the night came on. They searched for a place to camp, found a tree with many branches, and camped under it. They made a fire and put branches where they were going to sleep. They could hardly move around in the morning, but the woman felt a little better than the man. She had a little more to eat just before the food gave out, so she built the fire. They got ready to head out.

​

First, the woman told her husband to watch out for a big animal that would be lying across their path. The man was terribly weak and could hardly stand, but they set off to find food for their people. About noon, they reached the big hill on the back of Wellpinit. They sat up on the hill and rested; the husband said, “Right over this hill is where we are going to have our camp.” So, they camped where he indicated and near last Fall’s lean-to on the other side of the creek. Right, there was a big animal across from where they were going to camp. It had not been dead long, and blood was still coming from its nose. It was an elk. They went over and slit it open and got some ribs out of it. They were not far from the fir-branch shelter, so they built a fire there.

They prepared to start making soup out of some of the meat. They heated the rocks in the fire, and she took a “yamawa” (cooking basket) from the shelter and filled it with water, cut the meat up small, and boiled the soup with the hot rocks after wiping them. After the stones had been in the cooking basket for some time, they took them out and put in new hot ones to keep them boiling. When the meat was cooked, the rocks were removed and they let the Elk Soup cool. The man said in their condition, they must not eat any meat – they could only drink a little soup, and he would fix the amount for both of them. So, he fixed a little for them. When they were done drinking it, he said they couldn’t have any more until the “Elk Soup” made them feel stronger. After a while, they drank

​

a little larger amount. In the evening, they drank a little larger amount. That made them feel better, and he said he’d go down and cut up the animal after a while. They took a small amount of soup again after a while, and then he went down and butchered the animal, brought it back, and stored it for the night.

​

They slept a while, got up before dawn and roasted, and ate a good deal of meat. They roasted all the meat on a willow frame four or 5 feet over the fire. All day, they did this, and in the evening, she said she would go back with the meat and feed her father if he was not dead. They felt normal in the morning, packed, and prepared to leave. They took as much meat as she could carry and started back to the village. It was much easier going back. She went back the same way they’d come. She got home and found her parents still alive but nearly starved…all thin, and their eyes stuck out. She started a fire and went through the process of making soup. While the rocks were heating, she went and found the neighbors still alive. She told them she was making soup and that they would have some shortly. She gave one swallow to her father when the soup was lukewarm. She gave everyone a swallow, taking it around to all the neighbors. It took her an hour to make the whole round, and then she started again, giving them a little more than before. She said they could have no meat until the next day. She got up in the morning, heated the soup, and gave everybody a little piece of meat with a drink. Just enough to chew on – it took two big “itctshin” pots full of soup to feed everybody. She gave each some meat and told her father she was going back to her husband. She said they would be back in two days with more meat and then they could come to where her husband was with her. When she arrived at the camp where her husband was, she saw some black-tailed deer lying there. Her husband had killed over 10-12 deer. They ate some meat and then went to get some of them to bring down to camp. They spent the rest of the evening skinning and butchering and all of the next day. The next day they roasted all of the meant by “stscauks grame” method. She told her husband she was going back to the people, and he said to tell them to bring their camp to where he was. She packed a load of meat and returned and found smoke at her father’s house. Her mother was kneeling by the fire. She told her that all of the people of the village were good. She distributed the meat and told them if they wished, they could come to where her husband was and that they had lots of meat there, which her husband had killed. She said this was the last time she was going to bring the meat down to them. She went back, and she and her husband continued roasting the meat. Two days later, her father arrived, and the next day, another bunch came, and it was not long until all the people were there. All the men were hunting deer, and the snowshoes did not sink very much, but the snow handicapped the deer.

​

Sam Boyd believes that the woman must have had “sumesh” (Medicine) to foretell finding the animal – the man was smart, but the woman was smarter yet. His (Sam Boyd) Tupiye was alive when this happened. They fixed the place where they got the deer as a hunting camp. We remember when there is a lot of snow, that this is the time when people starve.

 

We must have faith and work to take care of our people. Elk Soup is how we get our people back to finding their strength. At times, our people fall on hard times, but we can rely on our “Sqwelixw Sumesh” (Indian Medicine) and find ways to help our people be strong. This is how we survive…by helping each other.