Beliefs
The beliefs of the Quileute People have changed over time. They originally were a very spiritual people. Yet, at a certain age, the power would wear off, or stop being put to use. They would perform the first salmon ceremony to ensure a good season.
They believed that each person had their own guardian and they would pray to it, along with the sun and Tsikáti (the universe). Much of their original religion was lost and forgotten after the Europeans came. James Island, an island visible from First Beach, has played a role in all aspects of Quileute beliefs and culture. Originally called "A-Ka-Lat" ("Top of the Rock"), it was used as a fortress to keep opposing tribes out and served as a burial ground for chiefs.
Told much in Quileute folklore, the Quileutes descended from wolves. Quileute myths proclaim that the two sided mythical character known as Dokibatt and K’wa’iti was responsible for creating the first ever person of the Quileute tribe by transforming a wolf. This creation story takes on a life of its own. In the beginning there were five tribal societies that represented the elk hunter, the whale hunter, the fisherman, the weather predictor, and the medicine man. The medicine man honored the creator with the wolf dance. Quileute folklore is still very much alive in the area of the Quileute Nation near La Push, inhabited by many descendants of the original tribe.
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Famous quotes containing the word beliefs:
“Other people’s beliefs may be myths, but not mine.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The methodological advice to interpret in a way that optimizes agreement should not be conceived as resting on a charitable assumption about human intelligence that might turn out to be false. If we cannot find a way to interpret the utterances and other behaviour of a creature as revealing a set of beliefs largely consistent and true by our standards, we have no reason to count that creature as rational, as having beliefs, or as saying anything.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)
“Our inherent human charity and our religious beliefs will be taxed to the limit. No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)