Return Of Creek Woman -- Haida Artist Retells Legend In Sand

DUVALL

Far up in the mountains, where the raindrops and melting snow merge into a rippling brook, Creek Woman stands watch.

And far below, where the icy creeks have formed into a mighty river that flows into the salty sea, River Woman lives and protects.

Together, both of them guard the sacred waterway and all the living things that call it home, under the water and along its shores.

"It kept us from abusing the river," Haida carver and storyteller Ralph Bennett said of the legend.

"Creek Woman could destroy villages. She could destroy people if they abused the river, the creatures along the river. She wouldn't let the salmon come back if you abused them."

This weekend the 50-year-old master carver hopes his latest design, to be blown and scraped from the shifting sands of the Snoqualmie River as the centerpiece of Duvall's annual Sandblast arts festival, will help a new generation of Northwesterners appreciate the traditions that Native Americans of the Northwest Pacific coast have honored.

"Everybody gets reminded of how important the salmon were to the people," Bennett said. "Today, a lot of us need to be reminded."

The festival, which runs today through Sunday, features all the mainstays of a small-town summer festival: music, dancing, food, and booths full of work by artists and craftsmen.

But the the main feature is the annual sand sculpting at McCormic Park, the town's "swimming hole" at Northeast Stephens Street off Main Street. Some festivalgoers may have the chance to help create the centerpiece, to be called "The Living River."

Meanwhile, kids - and anyone else - can build their own sand sculptures alongside the professionals.

For several years, Bennett and his wife, Heidi, taught wood carving at the Haida House studio along the Sammamish River Trail in Redmond. About a year ago, though, they retreated to a secluded home outside Duvall to focus on their own work.

Sand isn't Bennett's medium. Since learning his art from his father and his father before him, Bennett - or Goo la'Slacoon (Abalone Finger) in his native tongue - has earned places in the finest museums by creating legendary creatures from lengths of yellow and red cedar.

But to bring to life the tales of River and Creek women for the festival, Bennett will team up with professional sand sculptors Brett and Brita Stocker.

"They wanted to honor the river and all the life around the river," Bennett said.

The sculpture is planned to feature the gamut of river life, including fish duck and geese, depicted in traditional native form-line design. And at each end of the stylized river, the watchful women will stand guard.

Bennett also plans to tell Haida tales.

"The tradition is very simple," he said. "It is a story or a myth or legend that a family owns. This stuff can't be lost because, here I am, telling you. And as a carver, I'm doing exactly what my ancestors were doing, only on a larger scale."

Bennett hopes that people will accept that the wisdom of his grandfathers is still relevant.

"The totem poles of the past are reminders to pay attention to your surroundings," he said.

"Nothing is sacred if everything isn't sacred."

-------------------- Big doings in Duvall -------------------- Sandblast '99 events will run from 1 to 10:30 p.m. tomorrow and 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday in downtown Duvall. A kickoff talent show is scheduled for 7 tonight at the Cedarcrest High School Performing Arts Center, 29000 150th Ave. N.E., Duvall.

----------------------------------------------------------- Legend of killer whales' creation includes practical advice -----------------------------------------------------------

Some Northwest Indian legends weave practical advice with parables of creation and times of long ago. Ralph Bennett gives this example:

"There was a time of famine. The food was gone. Everything was gone, and the people were starving. The salmon had stopped coming back to the rivers and streams."

One of the old shamans was having this dream. And in this dream he saw black, swimming creatures.

The shaman ordered the village carvers to carve seven great black creatures, as his dream had foreseen. So they cut down seven beautiful red cedar trees, and they carved them.

But one by one they put the seven red-cedar black fish into the sea, only to see them float away, solid on the water but disappointingly inanimate.

Then the shaman ordered the carvers to try again with yellow cedar. It was a difficult demand: The yellow cedar only grew high in the mountains and would have to be carried from afar. Nonetheless, the carvers found the wood and made seven more black creatures.

"As soon as they hit the water, they came to life, and they became the killer whales." Out to the sea the great orcas swam, returning with fish, which they put ashore to feed the people until the salmon one day returned. Then the orcas came no more.

"But they became the pods of killer whales. That's why the body of your canoes should be made out of red cedar, but the rigging should be made of yellow cedar."