Sea Lion

A Story of the First Sea Lion Family

A Kyuquot legend tells of a time when there was only one sea lion in the whole world. A warrior from the village would go out each day and hunt this animal and share it with the rest of the village. Once the sea lion was eaten the bones were returned to the ocean where it would regenerate back into its original form. The warrior shared the sea lion for the longest time without any hesitation. But as time wore on, he thought that this was impractical; as he did all the work of hunting the sea lion every day. He then started refusing to share his daily catch with the villagers. It was one morning soon after that, while standing on the bow of his canoe waiting for the sea lion to appear, the canoe suddenly tipped over, throwing him into the water. The sea lion had bumped his canoe from underneath. As the warrior started to swim back to his canoe, the sea lion swallowed him up whole. The sea lion then gave birth to four new pups. There was now enough of the animals to feed the whole village and free the villagers from greed. This design shows the warrior at the moment of being eaten. In the tail of the sea lion design is a salmon to show its traditional food. In today's materialistic world, it is good to be reminded that greed does have its consequences.