FORKS — Anita Wheeler spins her tales to interested tourists at the Forks Visitor Center front office.
The words fall easily from her mouth: “This story happened when animals were still people, before time changed. . .”
The stories come from her grandfather, who at least once a week, would sit in his rocking chair with grandchildren at his feet and tell Quileute stories.
“Each story takes on the flavor of the person telling it,” Wheeler said.
“So my family’s stories might differ slightly from other stories, but I tell them the same way that my grandfather told me.”
And tell stories he did.
Over, and over again — almost to the point that the children got sick of them, Wheeler said.
“But that is how you learn things, that is how you remember them,” she said.
Wheeler grew up most of her life in LaPush and later divided her time between Hawaii and LaPush.
She comes from a whaling family. Her grandfather was the last person in her family to hunt gray whales.
He also made canoes.
One of his canoes — now more than 100 years old — is still preserved.
She volunteers four days a week at the Forks Visitor Center.
“One day she just came in and said she wanted to volunteer,” said Marcia Bingham, executive director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce.
“We are so lucky to have her.”
Wheeler has enchanted guest after guest with her stories.
Groups of tourists seeking information about places mentioned in the Twilight vampire novel series or directions to the Hoh Rain Forest have often stopped to hear a story or two.
The stories are explanations of why things are the way they are, and sometimes instructions on how to behave.
One tale of Mr. Raven — a mischief maker — weaves teaching on how to act properly with a tale that explains features of the mythical raven, who in Northwest legends, was the creator of much of what we see.
Mr. Raven visited Mr. Bear, who had decided to teach Mr. Raven a lesson for all of his trickery.
Mr. Raven behaved properly at first, bringing his host a gift and announcing his visit.
Mr. Bear’s wife brought the pair dried fish to eat.
Mr. Bear and Mr. Raven had set up sticks in the shape of “Ys” to prop up their feet by the fire.
In those days, Mr. Raven had beautiful orange feet, Wheeler said.
Mr. Raven began whining and complaining because he had no oil to dip his dried fish in to eat.
Mr. Bear told him to place his feet closer to the fire and oil would drip out of them.
A bowl was set out to catch the oil under his feet.
“But as you know oil can only be rendered from a bear, not from a raven,” Wheeler said.
So as the fire got hotter, Mr. Raven’s feet began to blacken, twist and char.
“And that is why, to this day, the raven has black feet,” Wheeler said.
Visitors who stop by Forks can hear her stories on Monday and Wednesday through Friday of each week.
“If people give me the indication that they are interested, I tell them,” she said.
“But if they are not interested, I won’t start them.”
She also paints, weaves baskets and has made up picture cards to go along with her seven of her stories.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
