Blue Heron Coast Salish

animal-spirit · Canada · North America

In Lushootseed tradition of the southern Coast Salish, the Blue Heron is one of the myth-age beings remade by the Changer. In the Puyallup telling, the Changer finds Blue Heron splitting cedar for a canoe, striking the wood with his head and beating it with his hand while singing 'hand, hand, side of the head'; the encounter fixes the heron's form.

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