SQUILCHOW AND ENUMCLAW

Yet it was Wapowety who guided Lieut. Kautz on the first attempted climb of Mt. Rainier in 1857 and Sluiskin, a Yakima chieftain piloted Stevens and Van Trump to a point just above the falls that now bear Sluiskin's name. He thus aided these men in making the first successful ascent on August 17, 1870.

The history of most of our National Parks is closely allied with the Indian tribes that frequented these regions. Mt. Rainier, however, is unique in that it gives little evidence of any permanant residence on the part of the tribes that roamed about this country. Occasionally they came to hunt or pick huckleberries but the great volcanoe itself never succumbed to the tread of the early Redman. Fearsome legends were woven about the "Mountain" with its past volcanic action as the background and so the Indian kept his distance fearing to arouse the anger of the fire-god in the crater at the summit. The great eruption that occurred many years ago and which scientists believe is responsible for Rainier's jagged appearing crest is carried down to us in the stories that the old Indians tell.

One of the Indian theories as to the origin of thunder and lightning is expressed in the legend of Squilchow and Enumclaw. In this story it seems as though a chief whose tribe frequented the country east of what is now the Park had two sons -- huge specimens of manhood they were-whose chief delight was tossing great boulders over the summit of the "Mountain". When these boulders struck the Tatoosh Range on the other side flashes of fire and loud noises were caused all of which caused great consternation among the tribes on the west. On investigating the trouble these Indians discovered the boulders crashing off the granite face of the Tatoosh and they appealed to the other chief to make his sons stop the disturbance. The chief took up their cause but his sons refused. And then the Indians took their grievance to a higher tribunal - the Great Spirit and he, acting in the cause of right changed these two sons of the chief into two forces - Squilchow and Enumclaw - which to these Indians meant thunder and lightning.

And so someday when you happen to be in Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park and you hear the growls and grumblings among the dark clouds that have hovered about the Tatoosh you will know that Squilchow and Enumclaw are up to their old tricks again.

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