The Ancestral Grizzly

Long ago, grizzlies walked on two legs, lived in families, spoke their own language and used heavy clubs as weapons.

One day, when grizzlies still lived like men, the Great Spirit's daughter wandered into the forest and lost her way. She became frightened and called for help, only to be discovered by a family of grizzlies. Filled with pity, they invited the young girl to stay with them. She fell in love with their handsome son and the two were joined in marriage. Their children inherited traits from both parents and became the first Native Americans.

When the Great Spirit discovered what had happened, He flew into a rage. How dare the grizzlies create a race of men on their own? As punishment, He forbid them to speak, ordered them to walk on all fours and instructed them never to use their clubs again.

Stories like this were once told by tribes of the Pacific Northwest and beyond to explain where they came from. Most called the grizzly bear "grandfather," others "old man" or "elder brother." As they saw it, very little separated grizzlies from men. Our arms, legs, fingers, toes, ribs, backbone, stomach, heart and genitals are nearly the same, they would say. And grizzlies walk like men, placing their full foot on the ground with each stride. They can even stand like a man on their two hind legs. (In fact, grizzlies can do everything the Great Spirit disallowed, only they're secretive about it, according to the belief.)

In a widespread variation of the grizzly origin story, likely inspired by the commonality of two-cub litters, the ancestral woman and bear give birth to twins. Among tribes that ascribed to this belief, twins were often sequestered in a special lodge, referred to as "grizzly bear children" and raised differently from others. It was even believed that they had special powers.