Legends of Vancouver · Chapters

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Chapter companions for Legends of Vancouver by E. Pauline Johnson.

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Chapter 1
Biographical Notice
This biographical notice outlines the life and career of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), daughter of Chief G. H. M. Johnson of the Six Nations Indians and Emily S. Howells. It details her limited formal education, early reading habits, rise as a poet and public reciter, travels across Canada and England, her love of nature and adventure, and her final years in Vancouver, where she died in 1913 and was buried in Stanley Park near Siwash Rock.
Chapter 2
Legends of Vancouver
A collection of Indigenous legends from the Vancouver area, as told by Chief Capilano to Pauline Johnson, blending oral tradition with the natural and cultural landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
Chapter 3
The Two Sisters
The chapter recounts the Indigenous legend of 'The Two Sisters' (known to settlers as 'The Lions of Vancouver'), in which a great Tyee's two daughters, coming of age, request that their father invite their hostile northern enemies to their coming-of-age feast. The Tyee agrees, the feast becomes a great peace, and the Sagalie Tyee transforms the sisters into the twin mountain peaks as eternal guardians of peace and brotherhood.
Chapter 4
The Siwash Rock
The chapter recounts the Squamish legend of Siwash Rock, a stone monument to 'Clean Fatherhood.' A young chief defies the four men of the Sagalie Tyee while swimming to purify himself before his child's birth, and is transformed into an enduring rock as a reward for his devotion.
Chapter 5
The Recluse
The narrator recounts a legend told by Chief Capilano about a Squamish chief who was banished for ten years after fathering twins, believed to bring evil to the tribe. The chief built a solitary lodge by the Capilano River, surviving through hunting and fishing, until two children—his sons—found him and called him back to the tidewater. The legend ends with the chief returning, and the narrator reflects on the beauty of the tale.

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Biographical Notice

Legends of Vancouver

The Two Sisters

The Siwash Rock

The Recluse