Why We Tell Stories
From explanations of how things are the way they are today to how our ancestors got here to what makes certain places special, our traditional native stories are not just simple entertainment, they also define our culture by interpreting the world around us, connecting us to our heritage, and often teaching us how to become good human beings.
Some stories, like Star Child, speak of our origins to a particular place and how the first people are related to the star people. Some stories, like Deer and Changer, explain characteristics of various animals along with moral observations about how to behave properly. And some stories are real stories, describing real events that took place for our ancestors long ago, and define who we are today, like the Maiden Story.
Interpretations of the meanings of stories are not usually offered by our storytellers, who believe it is up to each person to decide what the story means to them. An important distinction in this case, however, is we believe the Maiden of Deception Pass story is not a simple myth. For our Samish people, the Maiden was a real person, from a real village, who long, long, ago encountered a powerful spiritual being, and through his intervention, became transformed into an equally strong and immortal being. The name Ko-kwal-alwoot is not the real ancestral name for the Maiden but her public name, because our people have long believed that calling forth real ancestral names too often is taboo. The public name allows us to refer to her frequently without hesitation. In fact, to this day, several women in the Samish community still carry the true name of the Maiden, bestowed in ceremonies where witnesses stood behind their inherited rights to carry the name.
We hope you enjoy this interpretation of the story of Ko-kwal-alwoot, our Maiden of Deception Pass.