The Welcome Figure at Vi Hilbert Park

DUKABAL AND GRANDMOTHER FROG

with permission to share from and as told by Andrea Wilbur-Sigo

 Long ago there were two young sisters and one of them had a baby, they would leave the baby with their blind grandmother while they went to work gathering wood and roots. The grandmother was told to never call the child a boy or address him as her grandson! While the sisters were working the grandmother would keep the baby in a cradle board, this cradle board for some unknown reason would bounce the baby up and down all on its own. So, the grandmother would just sit and sing to her grandchild. When grandmother would sing to the baby, she would refer to the baby as her granddaughter like the sisters had asked her to do. But one day while the sisters were out working, and grandmother was watching the baby she referred to her grandchild as her grandson…. Quickly she corrected herself and said oh granddaughter, my granddaughter. What grandmother did not know was that there were two women secretly watching and when the grandmother was taking a nap the women swept in and took the grandbaby and replaced him with a rotten piece of wood. So, when the sisters got home, they heard the grandmother singing away but it was a new song the grandmother was saying “oh my grandchild you smell like a rotten piece of wood, you smell so rotten ha-ha, oh how you smell so rotten” …. The sisters both looked at each other and thought what grandma is singing about so they went to check on the baby and the baby was gone…. Where had the baby went who has taken this baby…. So, they called on all the neighboring nations to please help find the baby and they searched and searched but after looking high and low for the baby they had no luck…. What they did not know was that the baby was taken to the Great Sky World because of his great Tamanmis powers. His mother went on to have another child but never lost hope in finding her son.

Her other son was born with health issues but always enjoyed retrieving water at the nearby spring. One day while there he was looking at his reflection and he saw two reflections he was so startled, so he quickly looked away and when he looked again sure enough there was a second reflection but this one was much older about 10 years older. He Crawled home and told his mom… “Mom I saw two of me in the water. His mother just smiled and thought oh my son you have a great imagination” …. But the next day the same thing happened but, on this day, the older reflection touched him on the shoulder and for the first time he did not crawl home…. He was able to run home. And say mom, mom look at me, my reflection has healed me and with great surprise and happiness sure enough her son could walk for the first time…. The next day the son went to get water like he had done every day, but he danced all the way there and sang as loud as he could with pure love and happiness! When he got to the water once again, he saw his reflection, the older version of himself, but this time the older him could talk He said, “go home and tell our mom her oldest son has come home and to come see me tomorrow”. The younger son turned and said, “what I thought it was just my reflection in this water I was seeing the past few days and you are here… the brother I have only heard of, mom will no longer be sad”. So, the younger brother ran and sang and danced all the way home with the great news that his brother was back and that he was the one who healed him and is the reason he could walk.

With much excitement the younger sister who was now older could not wait to go to the spring the next morning she always knew he was somewhere, she always felt he was nearby. So, first thing when the sun came up, they ran to the spring and loved on and hugged the baby who was now all grown, he was now a handsome mid aged man, her son had the great Tamanmis powers of being able to heal all people. He told his mom and aunt I am here to clean the house, so after he had done his work, they put on a big feast to let all know, the child has returned so everyone who had searched for him years earlier came to feast and celebrate together.

The oldest son explained to all that I have been raised in the sky world and I really miss it so much all I want to do is go home. Dukabal’s Mother and sister just wept at the idea of him leaving them again. He then told his mother before I go, I must find a wife, not just a wife but his life partner. So, he and his brother went into the house and made the announcement that he was here to find his bride. Well, all the unmarried women were already there and everyone there wanted to be the wife of the oldest son now known as Dukabal, the healer who was raised in the sky world. So, he said I have this huge bundle of spears and I will take for my bride the woman who can lift this bundle of spears…. Day turned into night, one after another they tried picking up these spears to no avail. Nobody could even budge this bundle and the woman tried and tried. Suddenly the door to the big house opened and everyone, now full and tired, stopped to look who could be opening that door as everyone who was anyone was already there from the richest to the poorest…. as word had traveled so fast as to this mysterious man from sky world with such great powers was wanting a partner.

So, they traveled over the mountains from the east as far east as Coeur D’Alene and over the mountains and threw the water from as far west as Quinault, they traveled from as far north as Nooksack and Lummi and as far south as Chinook…. but there stood in the doorway “The Woman of the Night…. Toad” with her granddaughter Frog woman! Everyone shook their head with disbelief as frog was a tiny little lady who never made a sound what was Toad thinking…. But Toad had great powers and she said step aside I want my granddaughter to have her turn, and everyone laughed, I mean how was a woman as quiet as Frog going to be with Dukabal… But they all parted the room to humor grandmother Toad and along her side stood a shy little Frog who followed her grandmother to the bundle of spears and as she looks around, she reaches over and picked up the bundle and threw it over her shoulder and onto her back with such ease and so gracefully. She turned and walked back to the door to where Dukabal was awaiting his bride. Everyone in shock had nothing to say and they quietly left the house leaving only Dukabal, his bride Frog, his brother and his mother and his aunt.

Dukabal’s mother was so happy to see both of her sons so happy and healthy and then she realized that he has come and done what he was here to do. Dukabal had cleaned the house and found his bride and now he was going to return to the Skyworld where he had grown up. Knowing that he was going to be returning she began to cry she told him “my son, my oldest son, I’ve been looking years for you and I always knew you were ok and that I’d see you again…. but never did I think I would have to lose you again… how will I talk to you, how will I know that you are ok, my boy”. As he looked at his mother’s sad face, he said mom, I was only taken to the Skyworld because “You cooked me just right and gave me the strong roots”. The day they took me I became known to all as Dukabal and I’m always around you I am the moon in the Sky I control the tide; I will always take care of you my mother…. I will bring you high water to help the fish get to you and I will give you low water to fill my peoples belly with the shellfish, that will show themselves to you during those low tides. You will always be able to look in the sky and I will be right there whether you see me or not, I will be dangling my feet from the nearest cloud on the days you can’t see me in moon form, you need to know that I will always watch over you. Mother you need to know I’ve never left your side… But I came to find my bride, I needed to find my life partner to help with my loneliness, I felt I needed someone to talk to and to become my best friend, I want to spend nights talking and build a safe home together. Now she will return to the Skyworld with me and together we will fill our hearts with love.

Dukabal’s Mother said but son I always thought you would make me a grandmother and I thought I would have time to enjoy my babies, just as your blind grandmother did with you. Dukabal smiled and leaned towards his mom with a sparkle in his eye and said ohhh mom that is part of why I’m here to find my wife, my partner, my best friend and he quietly said mom when I return to the Skyworld We will produce lots of children, your grandchildren and they will cover the sky and they will look like the phosphorus that you see in the water and we will call them our little stars. They will be right there for you to watch daily. Then next morning Dukabal and Frog went to the sky world and started their family, one by one Dukabal’s mother watched her grandchildren appear night after night, her little stars.

Frog is a great gatherer, and she would gather the camas roots and wood everyday just as she did in her birth world. But now she would teach her many children to do the same. There were three sisters that she so enjoyed watching for an unknown reason they never would never leave each other’s side, they were best friends and they stayed together always every moment laughing, talking and singing never to be separated (the three sisters). Mother Frog enjoyed watching her children grow and her and Dukabal loved the family they had created but as Frog got older, she began to realize how much she missed her grandmother Toad.

Frog was getting older, it was her time to relax, she needed to feed her soul, so she took the roots she had been gathering and decided she needed to start weaving and started plying a rope made of the roots she had been gathering. So, day after day she turned those roots into a beautiful long rope. One day while gathering more roots, she ran across a hole in the ground and after taking a closer look she realized she could see her old home, which only made her miss her grandmother even more. She told Dukabal I need to go see my family and explained that she had found that hole and had made a rope long enough to climb home so they went home to visit and then she climbed back to sky world again. She stayed up all not night telling her husband how wonderful it was to see her grandmother and family and how wonderful their family has become.

A few years later Frog went to see her grandmother again but this time she asked Dukabal to go join her, but when it was time to leave Frog told Dukabal who she deeply loved that she would not be returning to the home they made but at she needed to stay here with her grandmother she continued to explain ” I’m going to be having our youngest children now, and I want to have them here so your mother and my grandmother can enjoy them and I’m ready now to add to my title. I am not only your wife, and our children’s mother, but I’m soon to become a Grandmother Frog! Dukabal felt the feeling his mother had felt so many years earlier and said but wife how will I talk to you, how will I know you and my children here will be ok!” Frog smiled with a look of kindness and love and said “My silly husband I will be right here, I will talk to you every night, I will have our youngest children in the pond that appears when the tide comes high. Together we will nurture, reaffirm and renew the love that we have created and will continue to create until the end of time. Remember we will always be resilient and we will come together always as needed, a life were we once stood alone has now become a life that will always keep us together, we may need to change in time, but not only will we stand together, but we will stand even stronger, we together have joined 3 worlds The Skyworld, Land World, and Underwater World and we have reaffirmed to the next generation all things are possible together and together we are Dukabal and Grandmother Frog…. The great Creators…”

So, every night as you hear the frogs talking it is just Grandmother reassuring Dukabal that she and the children and the grandchildren are doing great and will continue to be resilient and together as a family in a safe home.