There is a spring at Plante's Ferry on the other side of the Spokane river north of Millwood. The Indians have always feared that spring because of the evil that would befall them if they touched a certain plant that grows there. Anyone going there would have a terrible itching for many days and might even die. Many years ago there was a tent up on the hill above the spring. There lived an old woman who had a real pretty granddaughter. Everyone wanted to marry her, but the grandmother refused.

Coyote heard about the beautiful girl, so he asked the grandma if he could marry her.

Grandma told him, "No."

Coyote asked twice more if he could marry the granddaughter, but Grandma again told him, "No."

So Coyote went down to the spring and broke a branch off the itching bush. He went back up and went in and said he would marry the granddaughter. If not, he would touch her with the branch.

"Don't, " she screamed, "that will kill me. That's poison!

"Oh, Coyote danced around, "if you don't give me your granddaughter, I will touch you with this!"

She said, "No!"

So Coyote touched her with the branch and she fell and died.

(Spokane)

Poison Ivy grows all along the banks of the Spokane River. David Whitelaw

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As told by Margaret Adams. Margaret Adams was an Upper Spokane, who moved with her family to the Coeur d'Alene Reservation according to the Agreement of 1887.

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2001