Indigenous Science

A Physicist on Indigenous Science – Dr. Sam Kounosu

Dr. Shigeru “Sam” Kounosu is a Japanese nuclear physicist who now lives in Canada. He worked with notable figures such as Robert Oppenheimer, and is widely respected and known for his scientific and scholarly achievements. He was appointed as Professor Emeritus at the University of Lethbridge in Canada.

In these lecture drafts and personal letters to friends, Dr. Kounosu candidly expresses his unconventional, cutting-edge ideas, most often exploring the connections and disconnections between physics and native science. He is among the first scientists of western training to do so, which adds to the significance of these documents to the development of the indigenous science paradigm.

WISN director Dr. Apela Colorado, who has valued and kept all her correspondence from Dr. Kounosu for 25 years, has opted to share his letters to her in the hope of furthering the bridge between the sciences, and between the indigenous and western mind.

Great care was taken to preserve and respect Dr. Kounosu’s unique voice in his writings, and with this intent, editing done on his letters was kept to the barest minimum.

Indigenous Science, Migrations

19 December 1988 Personal Correspondence on Rocks, Migrations, and Power (PDF)

Dec. 19, ’88.

Dear Pam

There is a picture of “Rock Face” that you might look at. It has remarkable resemblance to the one that you gave me a photo of. It is in a book (page 260) Space Ship In Prehistory, by Peter Kolosiw [Citadel Press 1982. ISBN 0-8065-0731-1.] The book belongs to E. Milton, and I did not have a chance to make a copy. But you might find the book in Calgary. There is a mention of “Birdman” which is very much like “Raven” of Haida/North West Coast Totem. (see also the “Eyes” (copy8)). The book is talking about the possibility that people came to the Earth from other planet. That may or may not be the point that you are interested. But the resemblance in two Rock Faces might be of your interest.

The Rock Face was found in Easter Island. And it is said to be the face of God “Make-Make”. That sent me to look for more clues in Easter Island. Sure enough, there were others. Teh enclosed are som of pictures. Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdale [Allen&Unwin 1960] has photo of Rock Drawings (copy 1) and sketch of Birdman (copy 2). Round Eyes are there too. Photos from Easter Island by Alfred Metreaux [Oxford U press 1959 (3)] and Modernization of Easter Island by J. Doiuglas Porteous [U. of Victoria Press 1981 (4)] are probably the same Rock Drawings as (1). Other artifacts are also similar to Haida/North West Coast ones.

In addition, there is a Stone Text in A. Metreaux’s book (copy 5). Another book: The Mystery Of Easter Island by Jean-Michel Schwartz [Avon Books 1973] talks of Written Text (6). A more detailed analysis of written Texts is given in a book The Eighth Land by Thomas S. Barthel [U. of Hawaii press 1978].

A story mentioned in Schwartz’s book tells of :Sparks of Spirit blown up went into Rocks”. The “Rock” is therefore revered as “Knowledge”. People there represent the “knowledge” by Red Rocks in a shape of Hat and put them on the gigantic Stone Statues. It also refers to “Sacred Turtle”. [I note that Hida Stories do not mention “Turtle”. It could be that in adaptation to a cold climate the name might be changed to something people there can see. I do not know the Language to check if there had been changes. On the other hand, I do not imagine Oneida see too many Turtles around in New York State. Yet “Turtle” survived. Why?]

Barthel’s book mentions “The Dream Voyage of Hau Maka” (7). A word “Hiva” frequently appearing in all these stories remidn me of “Kiva” of Hopi. “Hiva” is something like what you call “Cove” — incidentally, do you mean “Cove” is also called “Gii Laii”? —.

At any rate, it appears that people in ancient times traveled a great distance, or at least some minority did. It could have been “Space Travelers” or “Voyagers”. In Japan, there is no written story in that effect, but there are “folk beliefs” which suggest small group of “strange people” came. They can be Koreans, Polynesians, Chinese, Mongols, Eskimos, Ancient Europeans, or Space People. Unlike the large scale immigration of people that Anthropologists trace, they are characteristically of small group or an individual, like “survivors/refugees” of calamities

[My family is often suspected of such an origin. My ancestors were “strange” to villagers. They were poor uneducated peasants, but they apparently had innate ability to read and write, did art, craft works, mathematical part of land survey, etc., but not quite competent at “domestic economy”, nor were strong physically, of course, in Japan, people are all “mixed up”, whatever were their origins. So we cannot trace nothing much. Only the “strange” characters somehow emerge in family line.]

Such “Mixing” from “strange people” has a significant implication. It runs counter to the present Paradigm of Native American Movements in that “Race/Tribe” is not simple pure “red-or-white” object (not to be judged “black and whit”). A “Peopel” or a “Culture” is made up of different origins in Diversity (Genetic Pool). At this phase of history, I think it is important to stress the uniqueness of Native People/Culture, so that “Equality” and “Liberty” are restored. In a sense that is more to do with “Human Right”.

But, I mentioned the “Power” issue — not “Right” issues — that Native People Culture has to go into. and beyond that, there is an issue of “Fraternity”. You know very well that there are deprived and repressed people within what is referred as “The Whites”. Even in native society, some persons are “more equal than others”. “Welfare” that you are concerned has to do with the “Fraternity” part — i.e. how to live in a community —. The “community” is a collective living organism of many different kinds of people. How to “live” in that sense is difficult indeed. Certainly, economic inequality, political repression/discrimination, and hostile prejudice have to be removed. But that is not enough.

A “Community” shares a common understanding in a balance of diversity. The common understanding is the “Culture”. A “Culture” is not artifacts that museums display. A “Culture” is not what it “looks like”, such as color of skin, blood type, sexual relation/lineage, way of dress/foods/routines, norm of acceptable behavior, etc. It has more to do with “mental”, “inner” world of people. One way to get glimpse of it is through Language of the Community. But to “speak” a Language means to think/feel/experience. And there, comes a sense of “Universe” which is intimate and sensual. Perhaps we are trying to become “intimate” with a Culture. But as we know well, it is not easy to go beyond romanticizing.

Yours

Sam K.

Indigenous Science

10 December 1988 Personal Correspondence on Paradigm Shift, Peace Research, etc.

Dec. 10, ’88

Dear Norm

Your letter and the Fibonacci Factor arrived. I thank you for them. But I am not going to “Edit” your writing. I am no “editor” anyway. So instead, I would rather talk about a general problem.

The problem has to do with the puzzling phenomena of “Popularity”. I got a book honoring David Bohm. The book is deceiving in that Bohm is not as “Popular” among professional scientists as the contributing authors in the book suggest by their generous praises. When he was invited by a student group at King’s College, University of London, to give a talk, no professor of the university showed up to listen. When Bohm came to lecture at Red Dear, I did inform his old admirers at Theoretical Physics Inst. U of A. No physiscist showed up in the Red Dear meeting, except me. It was almost like Peace meeting/lecture, poorly attended and ignored by elites that operate and control the “currency” of social scale communication.

Wm. Reich’s works, Immanuel Velikowski’s works, etc. had some following but academically did not “catch on” in the “currrency” of that sub-culture. Thomas Kuhn’s work on “Paradigm Shift” had to wait 10 years in an obscurity — first published in Unity of Science but little attention was paid then, including by those who were associated with the Unity of Science movement in late 1950’s. —. Only after Kuhn dissociated with Unity of Science and re-published essentially the same essay as a separate book, it came into the “currency”. Academics eagerly came on to the bandwagon, probably because, once isolated from the “radical” idea of Unity of Science, it became safe to adapt the catch phrase “Paradigm Shift” into academic vocabulary.

How come Marx got to be so popular that Marx himself had to say am not a Marxist? Whereas Fourier is now forgotten. Why Newton won and Leibniz lost? Both Faraday and Maxwell had “Vortex Cosmology” which was the foundation of Electromagnetic Field Theory, yet hardly any Physicist knows that today. It seems that a Prophet to gain the popular currency, he or she had to be falsified. I guess your Peace Research did not grow exactly as you envisioned. The unpopularity of CPREA, say relative to other recent comers such as Educators For Peace etc., has been well known to us for a long time.

That brings another question; namely “Why anyone would do it?” Van Gogh painted what he wanted. While he was alive, he was nobody. He had a “Lust For Life” and driven insane by that. He could not help himself. Flaubert wrote Madame Bovery, but that is the only one book that he wrote. He did not care to become a professional “Writer”, nor did he do anything else. He was not Popular in the town where he lived as an obscure man. Of course, that one work was enough. But, it appears that those who had a Gift was more like unwilling Victims than Hero. Certainly they did not seek Success. They did what they were driven to do.

We are stricken by the beauty of the “different” World, say, in reading Fabl’s Diary on Insects. He was not writing for a recognition of his scientific works. It meant to be private Love letters to Lady Nature. Since she did not write, he had to record her part as well.

That is quite different story from authors in our “Professionalized” Age, where one is either a “Knowledge Producer” or a “Knowledge Consmer”. If you are Knowledge Producer, then you have to assert your knowledge, advertise it and sell it in the Fashion Market. There can be a great Success in it and certainly the sense of Power is enormous. If one is a Knowledge Consumer, then one is to buy the “Latest”, Just as one buys new car, Hi-Fi computer, or dresses to show off to those who are slower in wit to catch on.

Keynes was the first man to introduce Mathematics into Economics and made Economics a “Science”. Before Keynes, Economics was Just a matter of “Opinions”. His Science changed our way of living since then. Yet in his old age he came to tell his students that “The Economic Utility of Economics is to employ Economists”. Indeed his Science created thousands of Jobs for economists. Before that time “economists” are “Moral Philosophers” and, other than generating “hot air” or interesting odd conversation in typical snobbish British tea parties, they had no practical utility and hence no employment After Keynes, Governments, Business, eagerly sought for economists. The market price of economists shot up. Seeing that many students wanted to have degrees in economics, universities which used to have one or two “Economic Moral Philosophers” had to employ Economics Professors. Where there was a handful of Economists, there came thousands of Economists, employed at very high salary.

That happened within a few decades. That is remarkable achievement of an Intellectual Production. That is why Keynes was a Great Intellectual Hero. And we mean “Success” of Science by such a model.

[*1. In the case of Einstein, the division of labor was in place and there appeared “self-appointed salesmen” who did much of selling. The QM case needs some elaborations. But at any rate, increase in professional employment are quite visible. I am an old fashion guy and had no idea about “Science as Profession”, until I came to read Max Weber in my later years.]

[*2. The group that Kuhn used to associated with was moving toward “Sociology of Science” which is to talk about such phenomena. Kuhn cut that part off, and that is how he became “Famous”. One has to know when to say a certain thing, or rather not to say certain things at wrong times, if one wishes to be “current” in the popular market.]

I do not think you had any idea about Success of your “Peace Science” would be like when you started. But, the idea of “success” in that sense is well established and operating as a Cultural Standard in our society. Regardless we think of it or not, we are controlled by it. Even if we ignore it, the standard of success is held by the society and people Judge us by that. They ask “What’s in it for me?”, If you do not give out an illusion, people see no “Utility” in what you are selling and hence go away. Of course, it is peculiar characteristic of the modern Euro-American society that “Knowing” in a very peculiar sense became almost like “utility, — because of the technology of printing, perhaps — and it became sellable commodity in the market. Arts became market good, and with the advent of T.V. even “spiritualty” became Billion Dollar Industry. The Capitalism triumphed everywhere, despite all that talk by Socialists. Veblen, Schumpter were right in saying Socialism is just a stage of the Capitalism. Marx was completely off the mark in this respect.

Given that, you have a choice of either to be a “Successful Scientist” in selling your products or to be a “Hermit” (or Jesus Christ, Buddha, Medicine Man, etc.) in waiting for Disciples to find and come to you. I did find you and came, but I do not think that was your idea of success. Another choice would be like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Lenin, Mao, Castro, etc. They are “activists” and their writings were secondary to acting in importance.

I think about such cases because of my peculiar position relative to Native science that Pam and her group is doing. I am not a “Native”, therefore I cannot be the one who is doing. I stand aside and see what is going on. That suits me alright in that I am a “surveyor”. But it is peculiar. I get a sense as if I am an Alien from a different World. I tell them to be passionate, yet that is not my passion. A stage director pick up a script and formulate actions that actors perform. Where is my own life/lust? I ask “What’s in it for me?” Not that I want anything out of it, but what I wonder why that is my business. To be without “trust” is to be “Meaningless”. I am at the edge of Nietzschean World where a burning Passion/Lust/Will To Power meets with a Total Meaningliessness. If Love Making is a meeting of Life and Death, what I have is a very odd kind of Sex. It is a Sex that I am not in it — as if I am castrated —. I do not feel it “happy one”.

If some people had to be victims of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Bombs, not by their choice but by “accident”, and live a life in a Hell thereafter, I do not have much complain to make. Besides I now know enough about how Native Wisdom has been treated. Being just useful to the others may be one thing I can do. So I aim at that. I just have to careful so that I do not sound bitter. I should stop at being cynical. I might invent a science of how to Make Cynical Love for the benefit of all cynical people out there. After all, it ought to be my specialty to put together contradictions.

[In a sense, Peace Research, Native Science are Science of Making Love for those who have troubles. What is ironical is that the castrated one is the one who is talking. One who does not talk. Every time I write “Native Science is” I know and feel I am faking. It is not for me to say. Yet I do tell Pam what Native Science is or is not. I do it  only because she can say no to that any time she decides to do so.]

I f the above sounds “bitter” already to you, then I can amend it somewhat by talking about “Beauty in Discourse”. When people talk or communicate, something beautiful happens — at least some of the times —. Even PLO and Zionist might achieve such a beauty. [In Nws today, I find out that a Jewish Ladies organization met with Arafat and had discussed the Peace Plan.] However, in general, the Joy and wonder of such a moment is too much. So people do not wish to come into “Heavy Talks”. Friendship, Loveship, and Fraternity, even in times of war, are like miracle. But people appear not to want that. “Don’t dare touch me, because something beautiful might happen and I don’t know what to do with it!” is the usual attitude. But that small probability — so small that one might say it has a “negative probability” is nonetheless there.

It also had happened in physics. When Quantum Physics was “in making”, only small number of people came together and discussed, argued, and even fought about what was about to be made. Private letters, frequent visits, discussion meetings, conference were held, involving no more than a dozen people. What was that held together? Where the Passion and the Lust came from? How did they know what they were dreaming about is of any importance?

The development of Q.M. was so different from the individualistic ones like that of Newton, Galilei, or Descartes. And remarkably, it was international. Race nor Creed did not matter. Even Japanese were allowed to join. In comparison to the “organizational Egoism” that I can observe among Peace Research, Education, Action, groups’ that was one hell of a “festival”. Unfortunately, as Q.M. got to be an established science, that “spirit” disappeared. Human Race was not quite ready to have Love Affair in a social scale any larger than a dozen people.

Incidentally, Einstein was a member of what they called themselves “Olympians”. They met regularly at cafe and discussed many things. Somehow, Einstein himself did not mention that too often. The cases of Castro, Mao, etc. can be traced to a small group of people. That is what I call the Beauty of Discourse. To be sure, groups may also corrupt. We have the phenomenon of “In Group” just as well to spoil the beauty.

But some day, I hope it will come to pass that I can talk about Native Science without pain of reminding myself that I am an outsider. For that beautiful time to come, Native have to become free and former imperialists become free. I think the situation of Natives have a parallel with “Arab-Israel conflict”. Peace Research is yet to work on the problem. So I have to do the work. I may not be around to see the result, but that is o.k. So many millions of people are killed every year. We let it keep going on. If I am one of them, I deserve the same treatment.

It is ironical that people who think I am a happy-go-lucky kind of guy and have no idea how debilitating the pain of depression is helping me to put on a brave face and keep working. I they knew, they would get depressed and we all go down together. That helps nobody. In the Science of Sun Dance, “Brave” means the degree of ability to contain one’s own inner pain. Europeans did not see anything beyond physical pains on the surface. Many Natives also lost the “science” of Sun Dance. For example Deloria’s description of Sun Dance in God Is Red only refers to physical pain. He has Europeanized to that extent. The sense of “Brave” to contain inner pain is forgotten. High incidence of Alcoholism, violence to others, and decay/death of native community indicate that. To learn such a science is a significant reward to me. Something must have told me to study Native Science, knowing my weakness.

Yours,

Sam K.

P.S. The enclosed are some of my recent writings. I send your manuscript on Fibonacci to Pam. I think she is in California now.

Indigenous Science

2 December 1988 Personal Correspondence on Scientific Literacy

Mr. Oliver Lantz

Program Director-Science

RDI Unit, Curriculum Support Branch

Alberta Department of Education

11160 Jasper Ave. Edmonton

T5K OL2

Dec. 2, ’88

Ref” STS Education

Dear Mr. Lantz

Thanks for the Draft Article “A Descriptive Model For STS Science Education”. As a way of expressing my support for the new direction of Science Education, I offer the following response.

1. The article by Jenkins stresses an Integrative Approach in Science Education. I think this is a significant move in contrast to “Professional Science Education” which has a marked tendency towards ever increasing Specialization/Fragmentation.

Specialization/Fragmentation reminds me of a Frontal Lobotomy. It is said that by a Frontal Lobotomy, the brain loses no “Knowledge” in the descriptive sense, nor “Intelligence” in the sense measured by an IQ test. What is lost is the ability to integrate/organize/coordinate knowledge, to comprehend the relational complex of the situation/context in which a problem is located, and to perform “Problem Solving”. It has a kind of intelligence to deal with unknown, no Just “knowledge”. It is strange that we do “Frontal Lobotomy” to our students in the name of Education.

2. But the fragmentation of Science-Technology also creates a need for Integration. As much as “Science” is a “Social Enterprise” in its making and its consequences, we have need of an Infrastructure which acts as a “Frontal Lobe” in a social scale. That goes beyond the individualistic sense of Intelligence, to the social scale intelligence which may be referred to as “the level of Scientific (Technological) Literacy” of a society and is related to “Competence in Communication” that J. Habermas et al talked about.

“Scientific Literacy” is recognized as an important aim of Science Education from a nationalistic point of view. The emphasis on Science Education that emerged out of Sputnik Shock in the U.S. was an example, and I suppose Trade Competition with Germany and Japan is now added motivation to it. It is interesting to note that Germany in the 19th century, and Japan and U.S.S.R. in the early 20th century introduced Science Education with a nationalistic urgency [*1]. Traditional Japanese culture is not individualistic and the general level of Scientific (Technological) Literacy is higher in Japan than in the U.S. because of better communication. I am not a “Pragmatist” in a narrow sense and do not think of Science Education in terms of Trade Competition. But, if the intensity of the debates concerning Free Trade is an indication, Canadians are not indifferent to the issue and educators cannot ignore the implications of the level of “Scientific Literacy” in a society/nation.

3. More importantly, the concern about environmental degradation/pollution has come to recognize the importance of education in “Integrated Science/Technology/Social Consciousness”. In a sense, the overall paradigm of science/technology has begun to shift to that of “understanding of complex web of relationships” from that of “knowledge of objects/materials to exploit them”. This point is discussed by many authors, such as F. Capra [The Turning Point. Bantam 1982] etc. The last several issues of the Journal of Physics Today contain interesting articles and letters indicating that even professional scientists are coming to some realization of the “crisis”. Although the debates also show that the majority of scientists are reluctant to admit the “crisis”, the change seems unavoidable. Yet, as far as we can see in text books for Physics and Chemistry, there has not been a major revision in Science Education.

4. The shift of the Paradigm in Science has been actually in the making since early 1900s when the Newtonian View of the World was broken by new physics. In this sense, the Physics Curriculum in the Secondary Schools is behind the times. The professional technicalities in Modern Physics may not be suitable for the Secondary School Curriculum, but the essential spirit/direction in the new “Way of Thinking” may be introduced in Science Education at early stages. I think Science Educators have been less than diligent in this.

5. As a way of looking at the “Nature of Scientific/Technological Thinking”, perhaps a Multi-Cultural perspective is advantageous asw ell as educational. In particular, I think of Native American Heritage that all North Americans (ought to) share. For example, I have come to note a statement from Chief Sealth quoted by P. Ehrlich in  a book The Earth. Chief Sealth was warning about environmental degradation as early as 1855. [A copy enclosed]. I think Secondary School students can (ought to) appreciate this. I imagine your office has good liaison with Native Education groups. I hope Chief Sealth’s statement is included in the STS text.

6. Jenkins stated in the report that teachers can “make or break” any curriculum, however good in a planning paper. I wholeheartedly agree. But that made me think of the need of a “Supporting Network”. I wonder how much encouragement material/resource support, etc. are given to teachers who are at the forefront of education. Perhaps, there is a need of workshops etc. to get their input, as well as providing them with support. Another thing that is obviously needed is Teacher Training in the Education Faculty. I wonder if there is a plan for a “Science Teacher progra”. I ask this, because I myself have had a great deal of problem and difficulties in offering a course called “Physics and Society”. My contact with an International Developing Group also made me aware of the problem in Science/Technology Education in the Third World. It is interesting to observe that Canada has the same problem internally. The difficulty is not just a matter of “teaching facts”, but it goes deeper into questions such as Ideology, Epistemology, World View, Language and Cultures. I hope that Faculty of Education will strengthen programs for Science Education.

Yours sincerely

S. Kounosu

Physics Department

Univ. of Lethbridge.

[*]. F.O. Ramirez and J. Boli, mentioned this factor in “The Political Construction of Mass Schooling”. Sociology Of Education. vol. 60. no.1. Jan. 1987. p.2.]

Indigenous Science

8 December 1988 Personal Correspondence on Indigenous Science, Education Philosophy, Anthropic Principle, etc.

Dec. 8, ’88

The student’s name is Ronald. He came from Germany, currently majoring in Philosophy. If he is serious I would mention your name.

Dear

I am most interested in your teaching plan for Native Science and appreciated your generosity to share with me. I take it that you are asking me about general philosophy/strategy of Native Science Education. So I shall follow up the “strategy of discourse” that we started to discuss. As to the teaching plan, in technical sense, I am not familiar enough with your education course to comment. I think your prof in the course will help you for that.

1. There is a trap that “teachers” fall into very easily. That is inherent in the Word/Notion of “teaching”. We tend to think that we have to “put some knowledge into student’s head”. But that is the very same “missionary” attitude that victimized Natives. I call that “Intellectual Colonialism”. You might find Kipling’s poem “Whitemen’s Burden” very interesting in this regard. If you “teach” Native children, I recommend that you keep the poem with you all the time.

Having a “good and righteous intention” is not enough. I would think that “Science Education” ought to be distinct from “Religious Education” in the sense “science” is not (ought not to be) imposition of “superior intellect” but a humble help to oneself and people.

Natives, particularly Inuits, feel offensive to offer even help if not asked. They are not individualists in European sense, but respect each person’s “Sovereignty of Thoughts and Act”. If you see a danger in your friends’ plan, you ready yourself for a “rescue” operation, and preferably you help your friends in their back so that they do not know what you have done.

Because of “time scale” and “distance” involved, Inuit Way is not practical in our “modern life”. So we have to “tell” our friends about the danger that they might fall into. And results do “teach” their children. But it is preferable that we keep the Inuit code of Etiquette in our mind.

Besides, education is “Empowerment”, not subjugation of people under an Authority, however right the Authority is. We engage la “discourse” and create a learning situation in which students hopefully learn “one’s own ability to learn”. Teachers are “facilitators”, not dictators who say “I am the Right, follow me”. Interestingly Christ and Lenin were called “Teacher” in the “follow me” sense. Buddha never has spoken in such a “commanding mode language”. Native Gods Wisemen, Wisewomen did not speak like that either, as far as I know. It is a distinct characteristic of “Judeo-Christian-Islam” mentality to “command”. [You note A.J. Ayer in Language, Truth, and Logic says saying anything is “commanding”. That is the paradigm of European-Philosophy. I do acknowledge “practical efficiency” of European Way of talking, but there are questions as to such a sense of “Truth” which is distinctively Judeo-Christian-Islamic.]

Native Science Education, in my estimate, is not attempting “Teaching of Native Science.” in the Authoritarian sense of European Teaching. I think it is good that “Native Science” is mentioned and recognized, but there is a “Native Way of Education”.

We get paid “teaching”, therefore we like to assert and claim our “achievement” in teaching. If we are “practicing student teachers”, we like to get credit in “teaching”. But Education is inherently “invisible”. If your students say “I got my idea by my own power. The teacher did not help me”, then you are doing the best sense of education.

[It is idiotic and possibly “criminal”, but many of us university professors have tendency to “show off” how much we know in the name of Teaching. Some profs even make physics course as difficult as possible or adapt texts which look difficult (called “advanced”) and think that as evidence for “good teaching”. Since how much “Learning” students did in a course is not easily measurable, the deceit often goes through as “real education”. The Dean is not knowledgeable nor care enough to see through the “Show Offs” covering up bad education.

Worse yet, the very students who are victimized think that difficult equations are written on black board is “good teaching”.  If a prof does not do that they think the prof is slacking off etc. They like to be “impressed” by incomprehensibility. They do not know that “making things easy” takes more intelligence and efforts. Unconsciously, perhaps, they do not like to learn anyway, therefore “good show off” is better (in terms of prestige, etc. Thus such a practice goes on.]

In that sense, we should try very hard “not to teach”, but let students find out for their own.

[In this respect, I had several of very good teachers who were delighted to have us arguing against them. One of our teacher later received Nobel Prize. We used tell him “you do not know what you are talking about” etc. In order to fight with him, we read texts, references, papers etc., ahead of class time. We were ready to show him different ways to get the same results, at least. Many of us are now Professors but we do not have students who would dare argue.

We talked about this and came to a conclusion that we are not worthy of Trust by our students. We are not great teachers like our teachers were.]

2. The irony is, however, you probably find that “Try not Teach” takes more preparation than “Teaching”. Since you are not “controlling” students’ activities, thinking and feeling, you have to be very sensitive and understand “what is going on”.

Some children may have already “internalized” Authoritarian Teaching Mode, and ask you “Mr. Teacher. What you want?” And, if you reply “I want nothing”, then the children would complain that “You don’t care”.

You have to understand them too, and have to consider “sensual” needs of humans to “belong” to a group. Not every students even in senior high is like a Native Brave who is aloof of the “collective security”. [The extreme Individualism of Native Braves is a “contradiction” to their “Communal Sharing Economy”. But let me postpone discussion of “Complementarity of the Opposites” for the time being.”]

On one hand we see that Einstein, Edison, Wright Brothers, et al were “Lone Wolf”. They did not have “Gang Mentality” — say like Nazi followers, American Lynch Mob, Bandwagon Riders, Opportunists, or what Nietzsche and Ortega called “Herd” —.

On the other hand, “Science” is a “Social Enterprise” if not a “Collective Intelligence” of a society/culture. No society will survive without a “Shared Myth” in common. “Science” is a part of the “Collective Subjectivity” which defines “Reality” as the basis/context for social scale actions.

It is not that the “Science Educator” has to know the answer to the dilemma, but the science educator is placing oneself to learn the situation. To “Learn” is to deal with problems. Deciding an “answer” is patently “unscientific”, for it means a refusal to learn.

So you go into the “mob scene” and try to make a sense of what your students are doing — inside their minds, which are enormously complex dynamics for each different ways —.

How a “teacher” prepare a lesson plan, in such a situation? We say “It is impossible”. But somehow we are “responsible”. That is to say, we ought to be “able to respond” whatever the situation there is.

The best we might do is to have a “Dream” of what might happen and prepare for it in a “non-specific” way. We are not there to stop what we consider “undesirable” by an exercise of our little “power”. [We are not going into Vietnam to teach people how to be “rational”, “intelligent”, “scientific” etc. Simply because we cannot.] We go into the mess and try to find out Native Science in the mind of children. We appreciate their intelligence, their silence, and pay due respect. Probably, that is the most that we can.

To be sure, we have added complication that our colleagues in teaching profession might not understand this. Yet “Education” is a social action. Each of us as an individual cannot do “education”. Your co-workers are essential. We need very best of communication among us. The trouble is, of course, we are not too competent in communicating. Even between a Wife and her Husband, or between the best of friends, we have troubles. We can hardly have the same Dream. We do not feel pains of others. In that, we are completely ignorant and “uneducated”.

When we come to think of “Education” as a Social action, we also become aware of problems of parents, society around, racial and ethical differences, etc. “Native Science Education” is nothing, if we are not prepared to take the pain of recognizing the problems.

Of course, we do not talk about such problems directly to our students. But, unless we have some idea as to what we are doing amidst all these problems, we cannot be a “teacher”, let alone be an educator. [Or it may be true that we can be a teacher because we are blind to the problems. Sometimes a Blind Romanticism may be a blessing, and that is how we “fall” in love. We find “love” is very painful thing soon enough. But then it is too late. We are trapped. We put the best of our brave face and pretend we are burning up in the flame of passion. No matter how good our preparation is, we are always vulnerable. We would consider ourselves lucky, if we have had a beautiful moment or two. Maybe, such is Being a Human.]

3. The above going is too pessimistic. I know humans have a natural Grace and things work out alright, despite all odd against it. But saying that may not be enough, so I add a “technical” suggestion.

If you are to do Native Science, perhaps it is helpful to consider beyond “Two in comparison/antagonism”.

To talk and think “Native Myth” tend to give an implicit meta-geometry of “One against Another”. Saying “Native Myth” implicitly implies “European Science” as its opposite. That is the basic “Formula” of Christian-Marxian Dialectics.

Hegelian Dialectics is a bit more complex (in my peculiar reading). It is not Two in Opposition, but a Complex towards Synthesis. And the “Discourse” would be helped by a better Meta-Geometry, say, of (2 x 2) Matrix at least.

The “European Science” contains a vague, implicit, but recognizable “myth, religion” which is held in a tension/contradiction. The meta-geometry of “One Against another” tends to obscure this internal tension/contradiction.

Native Science tends not show the “split” (say knowledge against spiritualty). By saying this, we are not comparing “Native Science” against “european Science” but rather seeing “Internal Structures/Relations”. (2 x2) Matrix let our “metaphors” (perceptions) wonder into subtler things. That is the merit.

Even if it is wrong, we say like “Native Science and Native Religion” in comparison to “European Science and European Religion” (heuristics). By simply saying so, it already start mind of people wondering; about “internal structures”, not just comparison of “European versus Native”. This is a remarkable “Ritual” (Technology) for our thinking/talking. It is an extension fo the technology know as “asking a right question at right time”. (Let us call it “Seeing a problem in appropriate context”.) We use help of “mental geometry” (which is a “mathematics” and hence “science”).

It inevitably leads us into thinking what “Science” is for, relative to what “Religion” (Myth, Spirituality) is for. Why the split? Does not Native side also have troubles/tension? Native Americans are also Humans, not “Gods” nor “Beasts”. Characteristics of Humans are (i) that they have (if not create) problems, and (ii) that thye have ability to learn (to deal with problems). To put the same in another way, “Science” is (i) knowing Reality, and (ii) Changing Reality (even a minimal sense of change in “perception” of Reality). [If you wish to have (2 x 2) Matrix, you could multiply Love?Power pair in combination with them.]

The “Knowing” and “Changing” is a pair of Dialectical Oppositions. They can be viewed as “Knowing Reality” as a move towards Stability (conservative) and “Changing Reality” is a move from Sensitivity. What is Sensitive cannot be Stable, which the Grand Inquisitor of Dostoevski explained to Jesus in return. But it can also be viewed a s”Complementality”. You have seen an example of this in Quantum Epistemology in your Philosophy of Science course. You note that even Love, despite its intent to “preserve” and “protect”, changes everything. “Power” forces changes and defend stability Education (of both Power Way and Love Way) changes “self”, yet it is a construction of an “identity”.

How to use this (2 x 2) matrix as a tool for synthesis is a “science”. Interestingly, Native American had this science under the name of “Sacred Hoop”, consisting of 4 elements arranged in a circle. If we think of “Science” to be “Way of Thinking” to deal with problems in living, Natives had a better Science than the Science of Christian-Marxist (1 x 1) Dialectics.

Science of Native is not “Man against Nature” (God and Devil) or “Ego against object” (Subjectivity against Reality), but rather a Complex Circular Relationships which we recently have come call “Environment” (though we tend to think it as an object still).

To grasp the “Whole” is better achieved by “Hoop” metaphor than European Linear Metaphor. That is to say, Native Science is more sophisticated than European Mechanics.

[A copy of a speech by Chief Sealth is enclosed as example.]

4. Another recent “discovery” in European Science is “Anthropic Principle”. The “discovery” is in the sense of Columbus “discovered” America. For Natives have known the principle for a long time. Anthropic Principle says that the Universe in which intelligent being could possibly exist is a Miracle — the probability of such adverse to emerge is very, very small, one billionth of billionth of billionth. It is so small that the very notion of “Probability” becomes invalid. (A French Mathematician Polson knew that too small a probability cannot be handled by the usual Probability Theory.) Only the Grace of love could have made it possible. Needless to say such a “feeling” does not fit well within European science, and therefore it creates a tension.

The reverence towards “Environment” (Universe) cannot be generated without an appreciation of the Miracle/Grace that Anthropic Principle refers.

Unfortunately European Science stands on an Ideological denial that “There Exist No Miracle/Grace”. When you teach Native Science, you are implicitly breaking the “Fundamental Truth” (Dogma, Axiom) of European Science.

5. However, Native Science is not predicated on Linear One-Directional Time. “Time” can be multi-dimensional, or “Two Ways” (flow from the Future to the Past, as well as from the Past to the Future). That is also in agreement with recent “discovery” in Physics. (If you like, call it Metaphysics. But One-Way Linear Time is one metaphysical theory among many others.)

I do not wish to “lecture” on physics here, so I stop. But it seems that Native Science Education cannot be stopped within the “European convention”, let alone within its Ideology. The European Convention for itself is breaking down.

 

Dreamwork, Indigenous Science

06 December 1988 Personal Correspondence on Lust and Eros (PDF)

Dec. 6, ’88

Dear Pam

This is a note about “Lust”. It came from a title of a book about Van Gogh, the insane Dutch painter who chased the Swirling Universe, which was more like Goedel’s universe than that of Einstein. I did not know this, but another author Milan Kundera argues that the word “Passion” in Christian Culture carries a certain tinge of “Guilt”, and “Lust” is a much better word. Kundera, also argue that”Love” has little to do with “Making Love”, and “Making Love” is just a minor part of “Sleeping With” a woman or man. The latter is far deeper. I guess one can go to “Living With” from there. But Kundera drew a line there and his story “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is about “how not live with” , or rather how incapable we are to live with. We can possibly Flirt but “Living With” is difficult. As it was in the story “Sleeping With” was already too difficult to do.

From there, I tried very hard to imagine if two or more people could have the same Dream. Jung talked of “Collective Unconscious” which is somewhat like sharing a “Collective Dream”. But we rationalistic intellectual individualists do not wish to have awareness of it. Suppose we find out that we share a common Dream, we do not know what to do with it any way. But that may be the reason why we have so much trouble. So we deny Dream.

According my dictionary “Onei” of Oneida means “Dream”. Some missionary saw Oneidas as Dream People and hence the name came? I was looking for a connection/relation of Rock and Dream. So far, nothing turned up. I am in “between Rock and Hard Place”.

Tonight, I heard Guitar Concierto “Concierto de Aranjuez” by Rodrigo. The Adagio part is very famous and you may know of it. I suppose the sad music is about the pain of having “Lust”, though different sense from that of Van Gogh. Human beings are vulnerable, ephemeral, and weak. It’s all because humans are sensual. They need someone to sleep and dream with. And at the same time, they are afraid of doing that. Because that makes people vulnerable to hurts. It is a lot easier to go on a power trip. To score woman, to achieve orgasm is easier than to live with. To dream with is almost impossible. Music convey some of that pain — the expressions in music form are permitted because we can pretend not knowing what is is and hence can deny it. Stories are harder to deny. And therefore handicapped. We have to contrive disguises, half hoping that people would see it obvious and half hoping that people cannot pin it down so that one can escape. We write about sex, but not “eros”. We are only “Flirting”.

When we cannot do any better than flirting — some authors are complaining that even the “Art of Flirting” is dying in the modern ages, between two persons, we can hardly do any better between two peoples. We flirt with “Revolutionary Ideals” etc. Stories about Europeans and Native Americans are full of such “Romances”. They do “move us” alright, but we may be mistaken in feeling that we “Loved”. Our reason of “be moved” may be “Moaning” about what we failed, missed, or lost. They are telling us what we did not do. That pains us. Yet, what could we do?

I wrote 3 letters to Department of Education about Science Education, but discarded two fo long “articles” and decided to send a short note. I am very sad that there is no chance that they would read anything beyond short “memos”.  I have know “pleasure” of reading books, without any care about people escape from Reality when I am hurt, that seems the only thing I can. There is a Dream World which is like a Forest without damned humans.

My name came from an ancient Chinese poem about a love affair. My father somehow picked two letters out of the poem and I and my brother got one each. But the poem ends with a scene where the emperor utters “What am I going to do with you, my darling?” They are killed as the empire was conquered. That is the end of the poem. My father must have known the inevitable end of love affair. (At least I knew, when I took a letter from the same poem to name my daughter.)

But then, what is “Lust” or “Eros”? In conscious intellect, we are thinking of Orgasm, Rapture, but the Pain, Hurt is just as important part of the affair. If one has not tasted tears, it is the same as not having experience of orgasm/rapture. To preferone side may be natural, but it seems inevitable that the other side comes with it. Whether to know/accept that or not makes the distinction between the modern intellectuals and ancient people. Sensitivity, Empathy, Compassion, Understanding, and if I may add a Christian word “Grace”, all come from there. The Success centered mentality of modern scientists (or rather Technicians) is made by cutting off the vulnerability, in Fear or in Arrogance. Native Braves did not negate one’s vulnerability. That has nothing to do with “Winning” battles. but rather they are brave precisely because they were not afraid of knowing/accepting pains and hurts. The “Sun Dance” meant that. I think Deloria is already Europeanized and could not see the meaning of Sun Dance beyond the surface of physical pain. the “Brave” of taking Inner Pain is far greater.

Listening to the sad music, I was thinking like that. The funny thing is, the World, the Universe looks different from that view point. I heard of every instrument for each and did not miss a single note that they are making in a transparency. Goedel’s Cosmology was there. I was glad that I studied Geometry which helped me to appreciate the transparency, though that means absolute “Nothingness”.

Yours

Sam K.

Community Development, Healing Practices, Indigenous Science

Traditional Healing and Western Health Care: A Case Against Formal Integration (PDF)

Traditional healingand westerns health care: a case against formal integration

V. Edward Bates

The holistic health movement has the potential for improving health care for all Americans. It also has the potential for descending upon Indian people with unexpected consequences. Traditional healing practices may become imperiled when, under the guise of holistic health, public health officials and health care workers (HCW)1, who dominate the services and bureaucratic processes, underwrite third-party payments and training for medicine persons. These processes potentially can subvert individualized spiritual services into a standard item of health care. None of the changes or preceding movements impacting Indian health over the past 30 years has presented such a risky challenge to Native American culture.

A review of major societal changes during the past three decades may help to explain why holistic health practices, affecting Indians in particular, are becoming popularized today. Recent history that has altered public attitudes towar Indians might begin with the clinical awareness of ethnic diversity and prejudicial attitudes that were significantly heightened by Adorno (1950) and Allport (1954). Certainly health concerns were highlighted when the Indian Health Service was legislated into existence at about the same time (1955). Remedial programs to address mental health problems, however, would not come into being within IHS for another 15 years.

 

Earth Sciences, Indigenous Science

Folklore and earthquakes: Native American oral traditions from Cascadia compared with written traditions from Japan (PDF)

Folklore and earthquakes: Native American oral traditions from

Cascadia compared with written traditions from Japan

1

Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Box 351310,

2

Department of History and Program in Religious Studies, 108 Weaver Building,

With Contributions from D. CARVER3

A. D. MCMILLAN6

D. BUERGE11, C. P. THRUSH12, J. CLAGUE13, J. BOWECHOP14, J. WRAY15

RUTH S. LUDWIN1 & GREGORY J. SMITS2

Seattle, WA 98195-1310, USA (e-mail: rludwin@u.washington.edu)

The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

, R. LOSEY7

3

Carver Geologic, P.O. Box 52, Kodiak, AK 99615, USA

4

13797 Silven Ave NE Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, USA

, K. JAMES4

, R. DENNIS8

5

FEMA, Federal Regional Center, 130 228th St, SW Bothell, WA 98021-9796, USA

6

Dept of Anthropology, Douglas College, New Westminster, BC, V3L 5B2, Canada

7

Department of Anthropology, Room 13–15, Tory Building University

of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4, Canada

8

Chief Councilor Huu-ay-aht First Nation, P.O. Box 418,

Duwamish Tribe cultural resources expert, Duwanish Tribal Services, 4717 West Marginal

10Snoqualmie Tribe, cultural resources expert, and great-grandson of James Zackuse,

Duwamish Indian Doctor, The Snoqualmie Tribe, P.O. Box 280, Carnation, WA 98014, USA

12Rm 1297, 1873 East Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC V6T 1Z1, Canada

14Makah Cultural and Research Centre, Makah Tribe, P.O. Box 160 Neah Bay, WA 98357, USA

Port Alberni, B.C., V91 1M7, Canada

Way SW, Seattle, WA 98106, USA

11310 NE 85th St, Seattle, WA 98115, USA

13Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada

15Olympic National Park, Port Angeles, WA, USA

Abstract: This article examines local myth and folklore related to earthquakes, landslides, and

tsunamis in oral traditions from Cascadia (part of the northern Pacific coast of North America)

and in written traditions from Japan, particularly in the Edo (present-day Tokyo) region. Local folk-
lore corresponds closely to geological evidence and geological events in at least some cases, and the

symbolic language of myth and folklore can be a useful supplement to conventional geological evi-
dence for constructing an accurate historical record of geological activity. At a deep, archetypical

level, Japan, Cascadia, and many of the world’s cultures appear to share similar themes in their con-
ception of earthquakes. Although folklore from Cascadia is fragmentary, and the written record

short, the evolution of Japanese earthquake folklore has been well documented over a long

period of history and illustrates the interaction of folklore with dynamic social conditions.

Local cultures in regions of significant seismic

activity around the world are rich in myths,

legends, and other symbolic representations of

From: PICCARDI, L. & MASSE, W. B. (eds) Myth and Geology.

Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 273, 67–94.

0305-8719/07/$15.00 # The Geological Society of London 2007.

68 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

psychology vis-a`-vis the violent forces of nature,

and other aspects of society and culture. This lore

can also shed useful light on the geological

record, sometimes even to the extent of suggesting

major geological events that remain undiscovered

by conventional scientific approaches. Common

themes appear in stories from different cultures,

and may help identify stories with geological

information.

In this paper, we examine two types of earth-
quake lore from Cascadia and Japan. First, we

discuss figurative stories from the Pacific Northwest

coast of North America that appear to refer to earth-
quakes, tsunamis, permanent land level changes, or

landslides. Geographically these stories describe

events along two major fault zones; the Cascadia

subduction zone (CSZ), which produced a magni-
tude 9þ earthquake in 1700 (Satake et al. 2003),

and the Seattle fault in Puget Sound which produced

an earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.4 in

approximately 900 AD (Bucknam et al. 1992). Sec-
ondly, we discuss non-geological evidence from

Cascadia and Japan that researchers have used to

date the CSZ earthquake of 1700. Next, we

examine figurative conceptions of earthquake caus-
ality in Japanese folk culture, both circa 1700 and,

in greater detail, during the period following the

Edo ( present-day Tokyo) earthquake of 1855.

This earthquake produced an outpouring of figura-
tive namazu-e (catfish picture prints), which

expressed a wide range of popular views on earth-
quake-related phenomena, both geological and

social. Data from both Cascadia and Japan

support our general argument that symbolic

language can usefully describe geological events.

In addition to demonstrating a linkage between

local earthquake lore and geological events in these

two parts of the world, we propose some observations

about similarities in this lore, with reference to other

regions of the world. At a deep level, which we call

the ‘archetypical level’, many apparently uncon-
nected societies throughout the premodern world

conceived of earthquakes in similar ways.

Stories of earthquakes and related events

from native societies in the Cascadia

subduction zone

Geological knowledge of the Cascadia

subduction zone

The plate-boundary fault at the Cascadia subduction

zone (CSZ) separates the oceanic Juan de Fuca plate

from the continental North America plate (Fig. 1). It

lies about 80 km offshore and extends roughly

parallel to the coast from the middle of Vancouver

Island to northern California. Although recognized

Fig. 1. Estimated 1700 rupture of the Cascadia

Subduction zone, from Wang et al. (2003). Numbers

indicate locales of Native stories with descriptions of

shaking and/or flooding. Story elements are tabulated in

Figure 9. Story references: 1. Boas 1935, 1a 33; 1b 92;

1c 122; 1d 27–31; 2. Teit 1912, 273–274; 3. Jenness

1955, 11,12,72,91,92; 4. Duff 1955, 9, 123–126; 5.

Roberts & Swadesh 1955, 315; 6. Sproat 1987, 124–

125; 7. Arima et al. 1991, 230–231; 8. Hill-Tout 1978,

157–158; 9. McCurdy 1961, 109–112. 10. Swan 1870,

57; 11. Gunther 1925, 119; 12. Clark 1953, 44–45; 13.

Eels 1878; 14. Reagan and Walters 1933, 14a 320–321,

14b 322; 15. Reagan 1934, 15a 33–34, 36–37; 16.

Jefferson 2001, 69–70; 17. Elmendorf 1961, 133–139;

18. Van Winkle Palmer 1925, 99–102; 19. Clark 1955,

321; 20. Boas 1894, 144–148; 21. Kuykendall 1889, 67;

22. 22a Boas 1898; 23–27 (similar story identified as

historical in the following reference), 22b 30–34, 22c

140; 23. Jacobs 1959, 176; 24. Jacobs 2003, 187; 25.

Frachtenberg 1920, 67–91; 26. Frachtenberg 1913, 14–

19; 27. Jacobs 1939, 58; 28. Ward 1986. 27; 29. Dubois

1932, 261; 30. Spott & Kroeber 1942, 224–227; 31.

Kroeber 1976, 31a 174–177; 31b 460–465; 32.

Warburton and Endert 1966, 58–60.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 69

as early as the mid-1960s, seismologists initially

assumed that the CSZ was incapable of producing

great (megathrust) earthquakes. It is seismically

quiet, and no sizable earthquake has occurred on

it since European settlement began. As the theory

of plate tectonics matured, studies of subduction

zones worldwide identified characteristics associ-
ated with megathrust earthquakes. These earth-
quakes are most common in areas where hot,

young, buoyant crust is rapidly subducted (Heaton

& Kanamori 1984). Although the rate of subduction

in Cascadia is relatively slow, the subducted crust is

among the youngest and hottest anywhere.

Field investigations in the 1980s of the coastal

margins along the CSZ located geological evidence

of abrupt land-level changes characteristic of mega-
thrust earthquakes in ‘ghost forests’ of dead cedar

trees in coastal estuaries in Washington and

Oregon (e.g. Nelson et al. 1995). The cedars, orig-
inally above the limit of the tides, were killed when

their roots were suddenly plunged into salt water.

Beneath the surface of these same estuaries, soil

cores reveal layered deposits showing a repeated

cycle of slow uplift and rapid submergence. Pre-
liminary age estimates based on radiocarbon

dating (Nelson et al. 1995) and tree-ring studies

suggested that the most recent earthquake happened

about 300 years ago. A precise date, 26 January,

1700, was determined from Japanese historical

documents (Satake et al. 2003), and confirmed by

a close study of tree-ring patterns of ghost cedar

roots (Yamaguchi et al. 1997). The magnitude esti-
mate of 9.0, derived from the amplitude of the

tsunami that reached Japan, implies rupture along

the entire length of the CSZ (Satake et al. 2003).

Figure 1 shows the geographic extent of the likely

rupture area.

Native folklore from the Cascadia

subduction zone

This section examines Native stories from along the

Cascadia margin that are figurative and folkloric in

style, and not amenable to dating with any pre-
cision. Some of these stories appear to be of fairly

recent origin and possibly linked to the 1700 earth-
quake; others are apparently much older.

Native peoples have lived on the Cascadia coast

for thousands of years, transferring knowledge

from generation to generation through storytelling.

These Native groups spoke more than a dozen dis-
tinct languages (Thompson & Kinkade 1990), and

lived in a complex social landscape with both simi-
larities and differences between groups. Collection

and recording of Native stories began in the

1860s, almost 100 years after initial European

contact in Cascadia, resulting in losses of Native

70 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

Thunderbird and Whale are beings of superna-
tural size and power. A story from Vancouver

Island says that Thunderbird causes thunder by

moving even a feather, and that he carries a large

lake on his back from which water pours during

thunderstorms (Carmichael 1922). The same story

says that all creation rests on the back of a

mammoth whale and tells of an occasion when

Thunderbird drove his talons deep into the quivering

flesh of Whale’s back, and Whale dived and dragged

the struggling Thunderbird to the bottom of the

ocean; imagery suggestive of ground shaking and

ocean surges. In this story, three of the four original

thunderbirds were drowned in this manner, and one

remains alive. Other stories also have multiple

whales or thunderbirds (Fig. 1, stories 1d, 15b,

22b; Reagan 1934, p. 25; Spott & Kroeber 1942,

p. 227–232) that may refer to aftershocks.

Stories 5, 9, 14a and b, and 15a (see Fig. 1) further

tie the story of a supernatural battle to the flood, with

imagery that implies shaking—Thunderbird lifts the

massive Whale into the air and drops it on the land

surface. The flood description in story 15a is strik-
ingly similar to story 10, which hints at a historic

framwork by placing the event ‘A long time ago

… but not at a very remote period’.

The struggle between Thunderbird and Whale is

unique to the Cascadia coast, and appears in stories

from Vancouver Island to northern Oregon. From

central Oregon south, Thunder or Whale figures

appear individually in stories describing earthquake

or tsunami themes. The central figures variously

appear in the form of Thunder, Thunderbird or

bird, and Whale, fish, or sea monster. In northern

California, the Yurok tribe has an ‘Earthquake’

figure with ‘Thunder’ as his companion. Stories

from Puget Sound and eastern Washington also use

similar motifs in conjunction with descriptions of

earthquake effects. Story 16, of the battle between

the double-headed eagle and the water-monster, is

about the creation of Agate Pass, a Puget Sound

waterway far from the outer coast, but adjacent to

the Seattle Fault, where a magnitude 7.4 earthquake

caused a Puget Sound tsunami (Moore & Mohrig

1994) about 1100 years ago (Bucknam et al. 1992).

are dateable, a few have vaguely historical time-
frames. In addition to describing earthquake

effects, Thunderbird and/or Whale stories have a

general association with landscape-forming

events, such as glacial moraines (Fig. 1, story

15b), icefalls (Reagan & Walters 1933), and land-
slides (Barbeau & Melvin 1943). Thunderbird also

appears in stories about thunder, lightning, and

rain. Thunderbird and Whale stories are part of a

systematic oral tradition that used symbolism and

mnemonic keys to condense and present infor-
mation in a format that could be remembered and

retold for generations. Native populations wit-
nessed multiple cycles of CSZ earthquakes; geo-
logical evidence indicates at least seven in the last

3500 years (Atwater & Hemphill-Haley 1997).

Artifacts depicting Thunderbird and Whale that

long predate the 1700 earthquake have been recov-
ered from coastal archeological sites (McMillan

2000). Knowledge of a repeating earthquake cycle

may be implied in a story where the Thunderbird

becomes a man and sends his Thunderbird

costume back to the sky saying: ‘You will not

keep on thundering, only sometimes you will

sound when my later generations will go (die).

You will speak once at a time when those who

will change places with me will go (die)’ (Boas

1935, p. 65).

theme in carved and painted art of the outer coast

and coastal fjords of Vancouver Island (Malin

1999) (Figs 2 & 3), where broad ocean openings

Fig. 2. Two interior ceremonial screens from Port Alberni, dating from the late nineteenth century. The screens

depict the Thunderbird, accompanied by the lighting serpent and wolf, carrying the Whale in its talons. Collection of

American Museum of Natural History; 16.1/1892 AB. The screens are said to commemorate a ‘chief’s encounter

with the supernatural while checking his sockeye traps at Sproat Falls’ (Kirk 1986). Sproat Falls is just above

the modelled extent of the 1700 tsunami (Clague et al. 2000).

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 71

Fig. 3. Nootka Sound Memorial, erected 1902–1903 to

honour Chief Maquinna, who died in 1902. Thunderbird

and Whale are shown as similar in size to Conuma Peak.

Photo PN11478-A, taken by C.H. French and

reproduced with the permission of the Royal British

Columbia Museum.

funnel water into narrow waterways that run far

inland. Port Alberni, at the landward terminus of

Barkley Sound, 40 km from the ocean, experienced

tsunami run-up about six times larger than sites on

the open coast following the 1964 Alaska earth-
quake (Sokolowski Alaska Tsunami Warning

Centre). Clague et al. (2000) have documented

tsunami deposits from both the 1964 and 1700

earthquakes in Port Alberni and other fjord-like

inlets on Vancouver Island. Alert Bay, between

the northern end of Vancouver Island and the main-
land, also has prominent Thunderbird and Whale

artworks (Fig. 4) and story themes linking Thunder-
bird and flooding (Fig. 1, story 1a), and placing

flooding at the time of the winter ceremonial

(Fig. 1, story 1b).

Native stories, art, ceremonies, and naming pre-
serve memories of Cascadia subduction zone earth-
quakes. Ancient, recurring imagery describes

earthquake and tsunami effects and suggests aware-
ness of repetitive cycles of world-altering events.

Likewise, similarities in symbols and imagery

along the length of Cascadia suggest commonly

experienced events. We now take a closer look at

earthquake-related lore from the Puget Sound area.

A’yahos, the AD 900 Seattle earthquake and

earthquake lore from the Puget Sound area

along the Seattle fault

The Seattle fault is a multi-stranded east –west

striking reverse fault cutting across Puget Sound,

through downtown Seattle, and across Lake

Washington. Although geophysical evidence has

72 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

Blukis Onat 1987). Natives passed down knowl-
edge of these events in their oral tradition using

descriptive metaphors based on their cultural con-
cepts, often ascribing earth shaking to actions of

supernatural beings.

In 1985, prior to published evidence of the AD

900 earthquake on the Seattle fault, an article in

the Seattle Weekly (Buerge 1985) mentioned a

Native American ‘spirit boulder’ associated with

earthquakes and landslides located near the Fauntle-
roy ferry dock in west Seattle. The proximity of this

location to the Seattle fault invited investigation and

we discovered that the Fauntleroy Spirit boulder is

associated with a supernatural being called

a’yahos. Native stories often describe a’yahos in a

way that could refer to earthquake effects,

especially landslides. A’yahos is a shape-shifter,

often appearing as an enormous serpent, sometimes

double headed with blazing eyes and horns, or as a

composite monster having the fore-quarters and

head of a deer and the tail of a snake (Mohling

1957). A’yahos is a ‘Doctor’ spirit power; reserved

for shamans. It is one of the most powerful personal

spirit powers; malevolent and dangerous to encoun-
ter. A’yahos is associated with shaking and rushes

of turbid water and comes simultaneously from

land and sea (Smith unpublished notes). ‘At the

spot where a’yahos came to a person the very

earth was torn, landslides occurred and the trees

became twisted and warped. Such spots were recog-
nizable for years afterward.’ (Smith 1940)

specific places in the central Puget Sound, along

the Hood Canal, and on the Strait of Juan de Fuca

as far west as the Elwha River. A total of 13

a’yahos sites are mentioned in various stories

(Fig. 5a, b), and these locales coincide with

shallow faults around Puget Sound, including the

Little River fault along the strait of Juan de Fuca,

the Tacoma fault, and the Price Lake scarps

(Haugerud et al. 2003). Five of the a’yahos story

sites are located very close to the trace of the

Seattle Fault (Fig. 5b). Four of the Seattle locales

can be associated with landslides or reports of

land-level changes that might have been caused

by the AD 900 Seattle earthquake. Additional Native

stories related to shaking, landsliding, or land-level

change are associated with three of these sites.

A’yahos stories along the Seattle fault

The west Seattle a’yahos spirit boulder mentioned

by Buerge (1985) is located on the beach immedi-
ately south of Fauntleroy Ferry Dock (Fig. 5b:1),

Fig. 5. (a) Map of Puget Sound and eastern Olympic Peninsula. Boxed area indicates location of larger-scale map

shown in Figure 5b. Dashed lines show locations of some shallow faults (after Haugerud et al. 2003); LR F, Little River

fault; T F, Tacoma Fault; DDM FZ Darrington Devil’s Mtn fault zone; PL S, Price Lake Scarps; FC S Frigid Creek Scarps.

Numbers in Figure 5a indicate sites outside the Seattle fault area associated with a’yahous stories. 1, Elwha River; 2,

Dungeness River; 3, Dabob Bay; 4, Bald Point also known as Ayers Point; 5, Tahuya River; 6, Medicine Creek (Nisqually

Delta); 7, American Lake; 8, Black Diamond Lake (1–5 from Elmendorf, 1993; 6 and 8 from Waterman 2001; 7 from

Smith, 1940). (b) Larger-scale map showing the Seattle fault zone, a’yahos story localities (indicated by black circles),

other stories that have apparent connection to earth shaking or landsliding (indicated by grey circles), and archaeological

sites (white circles). 1, Fauntleroy; 2, Alki Point; 3, Lake Washington a’yahos site; 4, South Point, Mercer Island; 5,

Madison Park; 6, Three Tree Point; 7, Agate Passage; 8, Bremerton; 9, Moore Point; 10, Portage Bay; 11, West Point; 12,

Duwamish Site No. 1. LIDAR images of Fauntleroy (1) and Three Tree Point (6) are shown in Figure 6.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 73

below what appears to be a very large landslide of

undetermined age clearly visible in LIDAR

images (Fig. 6a) but not shown on existing geologi-
cal maps. Long term local residents Mory Skaret

and Judy Pickens pointed out the boulder; Water-
man (2001) indicated a location further south,

near Brace Point. Stories of a’yahos spirit power

are told about both the Fauntleroy boulder (Water-
man 2001) and Alki Point (Smith unpublished

notes), immediately to the north and uplifted

during the AD 900 quake. Stories about Alki Point

speak of shaking, rocks exploding, and the power

coming from sea and land simultaneously (Smith

unpublished notes).

The second place in Seattle associated with

a’yahos is by the shore of Lake Washington (Fig.

5b: 3). According to elders who worked with T.T.

Waterman, ‘On the lake shore opposite the north

end of Mercer Island … an enormous supernatural

monster … lived’ (Waterman 2001, p. 102). Large

block landslides dated to AD 900 slid into Lake

Washington from the southern end of Mercer

Island and at Madison Park (Karlin & Abella

1992), about 2 km south and north, respectively,

Fig. 6. LIDAR images (from the Puget Sound LIDAR

Consortium 2000) showing apparent landslides at

localities said to be a’yahos dwelling places; (a) Fauntleroy

Cove in West Seattle (b) Three tree point in Burien.

74 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

The description of the widened channel could

reflect permanent ground level change, and the

sense of ground motion suggested by the story is

accurate; Agate Passage is on the down-thrown

northern side of the Seattle fault. However, geologi-
cal evidence suggests that the AD 900 earthquake

produced mainly uplift on the southern side, with

the north side down only slightly; the correspon-
dence between the story and reality is approximate

rather than exact. We note, however, that some

‘drift’ seems reasonable in a story that may be a

thousand years old and has been preserved through

extreme cultural destruction. This story, set in an

undated ‘long ago’, is strikingly similar to the

stories from the outer coast of Cascadia that use

the struggle of a supernatural bird and water-beast

to refer to earthquakes on the Cascadia subduction

zone (Ludwin et al. 2005a). The ‘long ago’ time

frame suggests an origin more ancient than 1700.

A fifth place, on the Kitsap Peninsula near

Bremerton (Fig. 5b: 8), is said to be another spot

where shamanistic spirit-power could be acquired

(Waterman 2001, pp. 206 – 207; Smith unpublished

notes). Sam Wilson, born in 1861, and grandson of

Chief Seattle told Marian Smith, ‘it comes from

land and sea at same time’ (Smith unpublished

notes). No obvious geological features were noted

at this site, though it is situated between several

strands of the Seattle fault. On the Puget Sound

shore of Kitsap Peninsula just east of this locality,

at Moore Point near Illahee State Park (Fig. 5b: 9),

is a spot named ‘to have a chill’ or ‘to feel a

tremor’ (Waterman 2001, pp. 206 – 207). A com-
parison of earth tremors to feverish chills was

made by Aristotle (Leet 1948) and it is possible

that the Natives of Puget Sound drew a similar con-
nection. Although the origin of the name ‘to feel a

tremor’ is uncertain, shaking was a central

element in Puget Sound Native medical practices

and ceremonials, and a’yahos was a potent source

of shamanistic ‘Doctor’ power, as discussed below.

Native ‘Doctor’ or shaman power was a particu-
larly strong form of spirit power. Throughout the

region, individuals sought personal spirit powers to

guide their lives and bring them luck and skill.

A’yahos was one of the most powerful of these per-
sonal spirit powers, though it was also malevolent,

dangerous, and possibly fatal to encounter (Smith

1940). A’yahos ‘Doctor’ spirit power was one of

only two powers (a’yahos and sta ́dukw’a) reserved

exclusively for shaman, and descriptions of both

these shamanistic powers include shaking or land-
sliding imagery (Elmendorf 1993; Smith unpub-
lished notes; Smith 1940; Waterman 2001).

Shaman were believed to hold the power to cure

certain illnesses, and also the power to cause illness

and even death (Suttles & Lane 1990). The name

of James Zackuse, a Duwamish Indian Doctor who

lived in Seattle on Lake Union’s Portage Bay

during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centu-
ries, translates to ‘trembling face’; rooted in ‘dzakw’,

the Puget Lowland Native word for earthquake

(Miller & Blukas Onat 2004, pp. 78–85).

Puget Sound Salish ceremony, when ritual objects

filled with spirit power and became self-animated

(Miller 1999, p. 133; Elmendorf 1993, p. 192 – 198;

Haeberlin & Gunther 1930, p. 79). An early white

settler noted a specific connection between cer-
emony and earthquake shaking as early as 1893:

During the past thirty-three years I have on many occasions endea-
vored to gather from the oldest and most intelligent Indians some-
thing of their earlier recollections; for instance, as to when the

heaviest earthquake occurred. They said that one was said to

have occurred a great many years before any white man had

ever been seen here, when mam-ook ta-mah-na-wis was carried

on by hundreds. This is the same performance they go through

when they are making medicine men, and consists of shouting,

singing, beating on drums and sticks and apparently trying to

make as much noise as they can. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1893)

Salish earthquake stories from outside Puget Sound

also draw a connection between ceremony and

shaking (Fig. 1, stories 8 and 22b; Ludwin et al.

2005b).

Earthquake lore from Puget Sound in the

context of regional earthquake motifs

Although the a’yahos name appears to be specific to

central Puget Sound, the double-headed serpent is

widely known and depicted in NW cultures, and

may have been similarly linked to earth changes.

The Quileute, a non-Salish group living on the NW

Washington Coast, have artifacts depicting a two-
headed horned snake with the forelegs of a deer.

Although not clearly linked to a’yahos, stories

describe it as a vicious guardian spirit (Powell &

Jensen 1976). Another two-headed snake, the

Sisiutl, is a figure well known from stories and

ceremonial artifacts of northern Vancouver Island.

the subterranean world in the same way that snakes

do) appear in many Pacific Northwest coastal

stories that describe ground shaking and/or

tsunami-like floods, probably related to earthquakes

on the Cascadia subduction zone (Ludwin et al.

2005a). Whales per se are not prominent in

stories from the Seattle fault area, though the

water-serpent of Agate Pass is analogous to a

whale. However, in southern Puget Sound where

damaging earthquakes centred deep underground

are relatively common (occurring in 1949, 1965,

and 2001), several stories mention whales trapped

inland and thrashing their way out, sometimes

through underground channels (Ballard 1929).

Thunder, also common in coastal stories of

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 75

shaking and flooding, appears occasionally in

stories from Puget Sound (Ludwin et al. 2005b).

Figure 7 shows two versions of a Salish ceremo-
nial dance mask and costume linked to earthquakes

(Le ́vi-Strauss 1979), whirlwind (American

Museum of Natural History catalog), and thunder

(Jenness 1955). The Sxwayxwey (also Swai’xwe

and many alternate spellings) masks sometimes

include a two-headed snake (Jenness 1955). The

mask’s origin is relatively recent, probably some-
time after 1500 (Ludwin et al. 2005a), and is

described in a number of Salish stories that use

Fig. 7. Salish Swai’xwe masks associated with shaking,

whirlwind, thunder and the two-headed snake (Jenness

1955). The two open-mouthed protuberances above the

forehead likely represent snakes. (a) Mask from

mainland British Columbia, collection of American

Museum of Natural History; 16/9222A. (b) Mask from

Vancouver Island, photo by Edward Curtis (2001).

76 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

Fig. 8. Non-Salish Cascadia Native representations of

two-headed snakes. Neither of these figures has yet been

explicitly linked to earthquakes, but they likely represent

the same spirit power as a’yahous. Both have horns,

representing spirit power. (a) Quileute ceremonial

representation of t’abale, a vicious guardian spirit on the

northwestern Washington coast (Powell & Jensen 1976).

(b) Kwakwaka’wakw Sisiutl mask, from the northern end

of Vancouver Island, photo by Edward Curtis (2001).

Cannibal the additional names Rolling-Down,

Great-Mountain, Rock-Slide and Coming Down.

The two-headed Sisutl of the Kwakwaka’wakw is

similar in form to the two-headed supernatural

serpent a’yahos of Puget Sound, and its blood trans-
forms the child of the Thunderbird/Dzonoqwa into

the earthquake-related figure Stone-Body. The

inclusion of multiple earthquake-related mythic

figures (Thunderbird, Dzonoqwa, Stone-Body,

Sxwayxwey, Sisiutl) in a story about the foundation

of the great houses of the Kwakwaka’wakw

suggests that earthquakes deeply affected their

culture. The use of earthquake imagery from the

adjoining Salish and Haida cultures suggests earth-
quake events that were felt across tribal boundaries.

Non-geological evidence for the Cascadia

subduction zone earthquake of 1700 from

Cascadia and Japan

The precise dating of the Cascadia subduction zone

earthquake of 1700 is an example of how local lore

and other non-geological evidence can enhance

conventional geological knowledge. The 1700

earthquake was initially dated through Japanese his-
torical documents, and the date was confirmed inde-
pendently through Native American oral traditions

and dendrochronology.

(Fig. 1, stories 1c, 3, 4, 6, 7, 13, 17, 27 and 28)

have sufficient information for estimating a date

range since an event associated with shaking and/

or flooding (two stories with both, three with

shaking only, and four with flooding only). Two

stories, told between 1860 and 1964, tell of a grand-
parent who saw a survivor of the flood, and one of a

great-grandparent who survived it. Figure 9 tabu-
lates the accounts, and gives date ranges. Date

range minima and maxima are 1400 and 1825. All

estimates span the interval between 1690 and

1715, and the average value of the midpoints of

the date ranges is 1690. Discarding the earliest

and latest midpoints yields an average midpoint

date of 1701. This finding is remarkably consistent

with the 1700 date of the most recent CSZ earth-
quake determined from Japanese historical

documents.

of floods could possibly be reports of tele-tsunamis

(i.e. those arriving from distant earthquakes).

Alaskan and South American earthquakes produced

notable tsunamis on the Cascadia coast in the

twentieth century (Lander et al. 1993). Although

we do not know the history of Alaskan earthquakes

around 1700, tsunamis from South American earth-
quakes were recorded in Japan in 1730, 1751 and

1780 (Watanabe 1998). Japanese earthquakes

have not produced significant tsunamis in Cascadia

since at least 1806 (Lander et al. 1993), but locally

generated tsunamis damaged the Japanese coast in

1611, 1707, and 1771 (Watanabe 1998).

the 1700 earthquake are mostly straightforward

descriptions of flooding and/or shaking. Of these

stories, the clearest and most complete is from the

outer coast of Vancouver Island, recorded by

Chief Louis Nookmis following the 1964 Alaskan

earthquake. It describes a night-time earthquake

quickly followed by a tsunami that destroyed the

Pachena Bay people:

They had practically no way or time to try to save themselves. I

think it was at nighttime that the land shook … . I think a big

wave smashed into the beach. The Pachena Bay people were

lost … . But they who lived at Ma:lts’a:s, ‘House-Up-
Against-Hill’ the wave did not reach because they were on high

ground … Because of that they came out alive. They did not

drift out to sea with the others. (Fig. 1, story 7, Arima et al. 1991)

Huu-ay-aht First Nation and descendent of Chief

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 77

Fig. 9. (a) Tabulation of story elements for stories listed in Figure 1; effects, figurative motifs, and environmental

setting. Brackets by story numbers group stories from a common geographic locale. Symbols are as in Figure 1.

The ‘Whale’ motif is enclosed in quotes to cover a variety of sea-monsters appearing in the stories. (b) Date

range estimates and quotes used to calculate date range estimates. Date range estimates used the following

assumptions: a ‘generation’ is no fewer than 15 and no more than 40 years, events before age 5 are not remembered,

the maximum lifespan is 100 years, flood survivors were ‘old’ when seen, and an ‘old’ person is at least 40.

Louis Nookmis, has discovered previously unpub-
lished information that allows us to estimate a

date at between 1640 and 1740. This new infor-
mation comes from a comprehensive transcription

and translation of the 1964 recordings undertaken

by the Huu-ay-aht First Nation.

A second datable story that includes flooding and

shaking elements is from the northern margin of the

Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington. It

combines information from three independent

sources (Fig. 1, stories 11– 13) to yield a tale indi-
cating winter flooding with accompanying strong

shaking. A tradition that cannot be dated but

vividly describes strong night-time shaking, from

78 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

abandoned following the 1700 earthquake and

tsunami (Minor & Grant 1996; Hutchinson &

McMillan 1997; Losey 2002; Cole et al. 1996),

supporting the possibility that flooding stories

may reflect this event.

As we mentioned earlier, Japanese textual data

were instrumental in precisely dating the CSZ earth-
quake of 1700. The exact date and approximate time

of this earthquake (9 pm on 26 January 1700) were

determined from a variety of Japanese historical

documents such as domain (han) records, merchant

records, and the records of village headmen that

reported the arrival of a tsunami with no reports of

associated shaking (Satake et al. 2003). In addition

to recording the 1700 earthquake, Japan has a rich

folklore related to earthquakes and written and

graphic documentation that allows us to observe

how that folklore developed and interacted with

other aspects of Japanese culture. Earthquake

imagery in Japanese folklore has distinct similarities

to Cascadia imagery, and we explore this, particu-
larly through the example of 1855 Ansei earthquake,

which was followed for a few months by a brief but

abundant output of ‘namazu-e’ (catfish picture-
prints) that combined earlier earthquake folklore

with incisive observations on both earthquake

effects and current events.

Halfway to the present and halfway around

the world—The 1855 Ansei earthquake

in Japanese folk images

Japanese documents used to date the 1700 earthquake

focus on straightforward descriptions of areas flooded

by the 1700 tsunami and resultant damage and do not

touch upon the origin of the event. However, Japan

lies in an area of especially vigorous seismic activity

and it is not surprising that we can find abundant

earthquake-related data expressed both as written

records describing the effects of specific events and

in folk culture ideas about their cause. The long

written history available in Japan enables us to

track changing conceptions of earthquakes and

offers an interesting comparison to the earthquake

stories from the oral traditions of Cascadia. For

example dragons and other serpent-like creatures

associated with water were prominent in Chinese

and Japanese folk beliefs concerning earthquakes.

Figure 10 shows a broadsheet entitiled ‘The cause

of earthquakes and tsunamis’ published c. 1650. In

Japan, the serpent figure gradually gave way to that

of a giant catfish (namazu), a belief that parallels

the many shaking-related whale stories found in the

Pacific Northwest (Ludwin et al. 2005a).

The link between earthquakes and giant catfish

developed gradually over several centuries from

native Japanese folk beliefs with some influence

Fig. 10. ‘Earthquakes and Tsunamis Explained’,

c. mid-seventeeth century. On the outer edges of the

circled dragon are written the months of the year. What

appears to be a small sword is just above and touching

the dragon’s head. Below this sword is written

‘kaname-ishi’, (foundation stone). Inside the dragon are

the ‘the 60 plus islands of Japan and the various foreign

countries’. The last line of text inside the dragon

explains that all of these places should be regarded as

existing above the dragon. In other words, the dragon

resides under the earth. Normally, it is pinned down and

made immobile by the deity of the Kashima Shrine, who

presses down on a boulder (the foundation stone), which

presses down on the dragon’s head. The deity’s sword is

a substitute for the boulder. Sometimes, however, the

deity dozes or is otherwise distracted, and he lets up on

the boulder. The dragon is thus able to wiggle around

under the earth, which causes earthquakes (from Miyata

& Takada 1995, p. 54).

of Chinese ideas. The basic view was that a giant

namazu lived in the subterranean waters below the

Kashima Shrine in Hitachi Province (present-day

Ibaraki Prefecture, slightly north of Tokyo). A

large boulder called the foundation stone

(kaname-ishi) pinned the namazu down and kept

it largely immobile. The weight of the foundation

stone itself, however, was insufficient to suppress

the namazu’s movements, and the system depended

on the Kashima deity (Kashima daimyo ̄jin, often

known simply as Kashima) pressing down on the

stone. During the tenth month of each year

Kashima had to leave his post and travel south to

Ise to attend a meeting of the major Japanese

deities. In his absence, Kashima would leave the

local deity Ebisu in charge of pressing down on

the foundation stone. Whether owing to negligence

by Kashima himself or to Ebisu’s inability to

perform the namazu suppression tasks, earthquakes

took place when the lack of pressure on the

foundation stone allowed the giant namazu to

wiggle around under the earth. The severity of

shaking depended on the extent of the namazu’s

movements.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 79

This basic understanding of the namazu-based

cause of earthquakes was subject to many variations

because it was enmeshed in the broader network of

Japanese folk religion. Cornelis Ouwehand’s

detailed, structuralist study of namazu images situ-
ates their themes within the broader matrix of folk

religion (Ouwehand 1964). One twist on the basic

motif was that Kashima often worked in close associ-
ation with the thunder deity and sometimes other

local deites of Edo. Namazu-e sometimes depicted

Kashima, Ebisu, and the thunder deity as being

jointly responsible for the devastation of a major

earthquake. Also, most early nineteenth-century

Japanese people associated earthquakes with water.

The namazu, of course, was a water-dwelling crea-
ture and the thunder deity manifests himself in

storms. Indeed, most popular newspaper accounts

of earthquakes also mention the presence of thunder-
storms associated with them (e.g. Kitahara 1999,

pp. 32–33, 36–37).

Although the namazu-based explanation of earth-
quakes had become widely known throughout

Japan by the early nineteenth century, it was not

the only way of describing the mechanism of earth-
quakes. The Ansei kenmonroku (Accounts of the

Ansei [1854 – 1859] era) contains a typical alterna-
tive, based on a widely known view of cosmic trans-
formation whereby the five primary agents of yin

and yang—fire, metal, wood, earth, water—

interacted to create the material world and to

embody the forces that govern it. With respect to

earthquakes, normally water ( purely yin) over-
comes fire (purely yang). Furthermore, water is

the agent normally holding sway in the subterra-
nean environment. Earthquakes result from the

occasions when fire overcomes water underground,

thus reversing the normal state of affairs. A broad-
sheet issued just after the Ansei earthquake of

1855 explained its cause in terms of both yin and

yang forces and the movements of namazu, but it

called the namazu-based explanation an ‘unsophis-
ticated theory’. (Wakamizu 2003, pp. 16 – 17).

Popular newspapers often started their accounts of

earthquakes with a simple, brief statement of yin

and yang forces being out of balance. For

example, the text of an account of the Ise earth-
quake (14th day, 6th month, 1854) explains that a

clash of yin and yang forces resulted in thunder in

the skies and shaking of the earth. An account of

an earthquake in Odawara (2nd day, 2nd month,

1853) employs verbatim the same explanation

(Kitahara 1999, pp. 32 – 33).

The key point here is that in nineteenth-century

Japan, multiple theories of earthquake causality

co-existed. Most of these theories postulated an

imbalance in the cosmic forces, expressed in

terms of the five agents (gogyo ̄) of yin and yang

or the subterranean movement of a giant creature.

80 R. S. LUDWIN & G. J. SMITS

Fig. 11. Untitled namazu-e showing (1) the

co-existence of two modes of thinking regarding the

causes of earthquakes and (2) the namazu as an agent of

world rectification ( yo-naoshi). Three members of the

construction trades, identified by their tools, are

celebrating their newfound wealth (the gold coins

apparently falling from the sky) by drinking with the

namazu. The foundation stone appears to be floating in

the air. On jacket of the man in the left foreground is the

character for earth ( ), while the jacket of the man in

the right foreground reveals the character for fire ( ).

The character for water ( ) forms the pattern of the

namazu’s robes, and the character for wood ( ) does

the same for the jacket of the man behind the namazu.

The airborne gold coins stand for metal ( ), whose

character also means gold or money. Earth, fire, water,

wood, and metal are the five agents of yin and yang,

whose imbalance was the cause of earthquakes in many

premodern theories throughout East Asia. The shaking

of the earthquake rectifies this imbalance, both in an

abstract sense and in more specific ways. In this case, the

tradesmen are receiving metal (gold, money) from the

wealthy members of society. Here the namazu can be

viewed as a literal cause of earthquakes, as a metaphor

for earthquakes, and as a symbol of social rectification

(from Wakamizu 2003, p. 69).

in the forces of yin and yang. Nevertheless, the

close link between namazu (or anything similar)

and earthquakes never developed in China.

Perhaps the most significant Chinese influence on

Japanese views of earthquakes came from the

ancient idea of heaven’s mandate (tianming). In

this view, which could accommodate both abstract

and anthropomorphic conceptions of the cosmic

forces, heaven (the cosmos) bestows on rulers a

mandate to govern based on their moral fitness.

Earthquakes, floods, famine, epidemics, and other

natural calamities were signs of heaven’s displea-
sure. This idea became the bedrock of classical

Chinese political theory. It was also influential in

Japan, especially in the notion that the cosmic

forces periodically rectify a social order gone

awry ( yonaoshi, ‘world rectification’). Earthquakes

were a major tool for bringing about such rectifica-
tion, and in this sense, they were not random occur-
rences. The print described above in which the

earthquake redistributes wealth reflects this way

of thinking. Earthquakes, therefore, necessarily

had political significance in premodern Japan, and

commentary on them could easily become com-
mentary on the state of society and government.

The namazu-e (catfish picture prints):

Japanese responses to the Ansei earthquake

For Japan, a particularly well documented example

of how folk beliefs intersected with contemporary

political and social culture is the Ansei earthquake

of 1855. On the second day of the tenth month

(November 11 in the solar calendar), a magnitude

6.9 earthquake with a shallow focus shook Edo

(present-day Tokyo) and a wide surrounding area.

Aftershocks continued for the next nine days.

Estimates of the number killed in the greater Edo

area range from 7000 to 10 000 (4000 – 5000 for

the downtown area), but the precise figure is uncer-
tain. This death toll amounted to roughly 1 in 170

Edo residents, and shaking and subsequent fires

destroyed 1 in 3 non-military houses and other

structures (Inagaki 1995, p. 64). The injured were

especially numerous, and fires burned for days

throughout the city.

geography, and politics magnified the psychologi-
cal impact of this earthquake in such a way as to

make it appear as a direct attack on the heart of

the bakufu, Japan’s military government based in

Edo. The distribution and severity of damage was

not uniform. Some areas suffered severe devas-
tation and loss of life, whereas other parts of the

city came through the ordeal with nearly all build-
ings and people shaken but intact. The damage

was less a function of proximity to the epicentre

than it was a function of topography and soil con-
ditions. The Yamanote Tablelands, an extension

of the Musashino Plateau, wound their way

through parts of the heart of Edo, constituting

modest upland areas. These upland areas were not

NATIVE AMERICAN AND JAPANESE FOLKLORE 81

always obvious because of erosion and past filling

with soil or debris of low-lying areas. In 1590,

when Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542– 1616) made the

fishing village of Edo his base of operations,

human engineers and construction workers began

to reclaim the marshy flats around Edo Castle.

This process accelerated rapidly during the early

seventeenth century, after Edo became the de

facto political capital of Japan. Edo Castle itself

was on natural high ground, but much of the

prime land around the castle had been part of a

river drainage basin of Edo Bay a mere two or

three centuries earlier.

When the earthquake struck, it shook the whole

city, but structures on the firm foundation of the

uplands generally fared better. The severe damage

occurred in low-lying areas, especially areas of

land reclaimed from marshes and waterways. As

fate would have it, the most prominent neighbour-
hood of samurai residences, home to the bakufu’s

closest supporters among the domain lords,

leading bakufu officials, and several key bakufu

offices, was located at a place that during the

sixteenth century had been the Hibiya Inlet of Edo

Bay. The earthquake devastated this neighbour-
hood, as if it had targeted the government for

destruction. One residential zone further out from

the castle, the area adjacent to the elite neighbour-
hood, was home to commoners. Built on a firm

foundation, it suffered only moderate damage and

stood in stark contrast to the elite neighbourhood’s

collapse. In the eyes of commoners and elite alike,

the cosmic forces made a strong statement that

night (Noguchi 1997, pp. 73 – 108).

As if to add insult to injury, there was one more

odd twist to the earthquake damage. In the com-
moner neighbourhood of Kitachi-ku, for example,

not one main building collapsed. Nearly all the

serious injuries from this neighbourhood were the

result of falling roof tiles or eaves from collapsed

storehouses, built as separate structures from the

main buildings. Many other neighbourhoods reported

the same pattern, and all visual evidence points to

storehouses sustaining much worse damage than

any other type of structure. These rigid, heavy, mud

walled, tile-roofed storehouses tended to vibrate at

the same frequency as the high-frequency seismic

waves generated by the shallow-focus earthquake.

The irony is that the bakufu ordered this rigid,

heavy storehouse design in 1842 as a fire-prevention

measure (Noguchi 1997, pp. 118–120). In this way

too, the earthquake seemed to be paying especially

close attention to the government in its destruction.

Within two days of the initial shaking, printers

set up makeshift facilities in the relatively less

damaged areas and began to produce namazu-e

for sale through street vendors. Namazu-e sold

briskly for approximately two months before

Earth Sciences, Indigenous Science

Serpent Spirit-power Stories along the Seattle Fault (PDF)

Serpent Spirit-power Stories along the Seattle Fault R. S. Ludwin1 , C. P. Thrush2 , K. James3 , D. Buerge4 , C. JonientzTrisler5 , J. Rasmussen6 , K. Troost1 , and A. de los Angeles7 INTRODUCTION The Seattle Fault is a multistranded east-west-striking reverse fault cutting across Puget Sound, through downtown Seattle, and across Lake Washington. Although geophysical evidence has long indicated a substantial offset in basement rocks beneath Puget Sound (Danes et al., 1965), no clear pattern of recent earthquake activity defining the fault has been observed. Geologic evidence of an earthquake around A.D. 900 (estimated magnitude 7.3) came to light in the early 1990’s (Bucknam et al., 1992), however, and the Seattle Fault is now recognized as a substantial hazard to the Seattle urban area. The circa A.D. 900 earthquake caused 7 m of vertical uplift on the southern side, sent massive block landslides tumbling into Lake Washington, and created a tsunami in Puget Sound that left sand deposits on Southern Whidbey Island (Atwater and Moore, 1992). Two archaeological sites near Seattle attest to the effects of such events on local indigenous communities. Excavations at West Point, a promontory jutting out into Puget Sound north of downtown that was used as a fish- and shellfish-processing site since at least at least 4,000 years before the present, show that that the area dropped at least a meter during the quake. The point’s marshes were flooded with saltwater and a layer of sand covered the entire site. Over time, people returned to West Point and began using it as they had before the quake (Larson and Lewarch, 1995). The earthquake also had the capacity to transform some locales permanently. At the Duwamish No. 1 archaeological site, excavations show that the quake lifted up a low, wet area that had been only a minor camping and food-processing site and turned it into a higher, drier spot that eventually became home to a major permanent settlement with several longhouses (Campbell, 1981; Blukis Onat, 1987). Native peoples described and commemorated geologic events in their oral traditions by using descriptive metaphors based on their cultural concepts, often ascribing earth shaking to actions of supernatural beings. In this paper we discuss stories about a’yahos, a supernatural spirit power that natives associated with five locales along the trace of the Seattle Fault. Three of these locales are associated with landslides, and another has a description of offset consistent with the movement of the Seattle Fault. In 1985, prior to published evidence of the A.D. 900 earthquake on the Seattle Fault, an article in the Seattle Weekly (Buerge, 1985) mentioned a “spirit boulder” associated with earthquakes and landslides located near the Fauntleroy ferry dock in west Seattle. The proximity of this location to the Seattle Fault invited investigation, and we discovered that the Fauntleroy spirit boulder is associated with a supernatural being called a’yahos, which is often described in a way that could refer to earthquake effects and particularly landslides. The a’yahos is a shape-shifter, often appearing as an enormous serpent, sometimes double-headed with blazing eyes and horns, or as a composite monster having the forequarters and head of a deer and the tail of a snake (Mohling, 1957). A’yahos is associated with shaking and rushes of turbid water and comes simultaneously from land and sea (Smith, unpublished notes). “At the spot where a’yahos came to a person the very earth was torn, land slides occurred and the trees became twisted and warped. Such spots were recognizable for years afterward” (Smith, 1940). Figure 1 shows an artifact from a non-Salish tribe on the outer coast of Washington that corresponds to the description of a’yahos and represents a vicious guardian spirit. Stories about a’yahos mention a number of specific locales in the central Puget Sound, along the Hood Canal, and on the Strait of Juan de Fuca as far west as the Elwha River. Thirteen a’yahos locales are mentioned in various stories (Figures 2 and 3). While some locales are identified precisely, rather general location descriptions (e.g., “Dungeness River”) are given for others. A’yahos sites appear to coincide generally with shallow faults around the Puget Lowland, including the Little River Fault along the strait of Juan de Fuca, the Seattle and Tacoma Faults, and the Price Lake scarps (Haugerud et al., 2003). Five of the a’yahos story sites are spatially concentrated and located very close to the trace of the Seattle Fault (Figure 3). Four of the Seattle locales can be associated with land- 1. Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington 2. Program on the Environment and Department of History, University of Washington 3. Anthropologist 4. Historian 5. FEMA 6. Duwamish Tribe cultural resources expert 7. Snoqualmie Tribe cultural resources expert and great-grandson of James Zackuse, Duwamish Indian doctor Seismological Research Letters July/August 2005 Volume 76, Number 4 427 ▲ Figure 1. A Quileute ceremonial representation of a two-headed horned serpent with legs; known as a vicious guar