Ancient Deities Dwelt in Cascades’ ‘Black Snow’ : Mythology: Native American legends give life to volcanic activity. Stories parallel actual events, including the creation of Crater Lake and eruption of Mt. Shasta.

Warring gods, black snow and deities represented by mountains are central features of native folklore focusing on volcanoes in the Cascade Range.

To the Yakama, Klickitat, Cowlitz, Multnomah, Puyallup, Nisqually and other Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, peaks like Mt. St. Helens embodied supernatural and spiritual forces.

The Colvilles and Spokanes of north-central and eastern Washington state used the term “black snow” to describe gritty dust that darkened skies and filled the air after eruptions they could not see.

The Klickitats, found east and south of St. Helens, called it Tah-one-lat-clah, or “Fire Mountain.”

St. Helens, known until 1980 as the Mt. Fuji of America for its symmetrical, snowcapped summit, was linked in many accounts with other volcanoes, especially Mt. Adams, to the east, and Mt. Hood in Oregon to the south.

One begins with the “Bridge of the Gods,” a stone span over the Columbia near the modern-day site of Cascade Locks, Ore. Loo-Wit, a toothless old woman, was posted by the Great Spirit to guard the bridge and keep peace between two brothers, Pahto and Wyeast.

Nonetheless, they began throwing white-hot rocks at each other until the bridge collapsed, leaving a perilous rapids.

Loo-Wit was burned, and her cries of pain caused the Great Spirit to transform Pahto into Mt. Adams and Wyeast into Mt. Hood. Loo-Wit was given the shape of a young maiden--Mt. St. Helens.

In another version, Loo-Wit gave fire to the cold and hungry Indians and was rewarded by being changed into a young woman so fair that Wyeast and Pahto waged war for her affections.

Even after they were transformed into mountains, the war continued until a fiery boulder launched by Wyeast silenced Pahto, giving Adams its rounded massif in contrast to the jagged peak of Hood.

Johnson Meninick, a Yakama cultural specialist, says he was taught as a boy that St. Helens was the youngest of five mountains, preceded by Hood, Rainier, Adams and the oldest, Spud Butte. He also said he was taught that the volcanoes usually erupt in sequence, making Hood likely the next to go.

U.S. Geological Survey research has found St. Helens is the youngest and most active the Cascade volcanoes, and its eruptions have coincided closely with those of Hood.

In Northern California and Southern Oregon, the Klamath and Modoc tribes told of a cataclysmic battle between the sky spirit chief Skell, who lived atop Mt. Shasta, and Llao, spirit chief of the underworld, who dwelt within Mt. Mazama.

Red-hot rocks the size of hills were hurled, igniting forest fires that drove the people to seek refuge in Klamath Lake.

Finally, two medicine men sacrificed themselves by leaping into the fire pit atop Mazama, giving Skell such inspiration that he prevailed in battle, beheaded his rival and cast the head into the fire pit. The heat subsided, the tears of those who mourned Llao filled Crater Lake, and the head is known today as Wizard Island.

The last scientifically verified activity at Crater Lake--eruptions that formed Wizard Island about 6,000 years ago--occurred about the same time as a major eruption at Shasta.