“Eena” is the Chinook word for beaver, the animal engraved in the art installation that now welcomes you to UBC’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Alan Steeves, Computer and Electronics Manager for Mechanical Engineering, and recognized First Nations artist, designed an artwork piece for the Department of Mechanical Engineering that is installed on the wall and greets you as you walk into the Department’s main office.
Alan retells the story of the first beaver as he remembers it being told to him.
The Beaver Legend.
A great hunter married a women from a neighbouring village. As a couple they decided to move to a remote area where they had heard that the wildlife was plentiful. After many days of traveling they came to a strange land. The Hunter built a hut where they lived while he built their house. When it was finished the hunter left for a two days to explore and set snares. The day after his return he left again to check the snares. He found them full and returned with his canoe loaded with furs and meat. As he explored and hunted their wealth grow, but his trips took him farther from home and lasted much longer.
To amuse herself when she was alone, the woman went down to the little stream flowing by the lodge. She spent most of her time bathing and swimming around in a small pool while her husband was away. Soon she found the little pool too small for her, so she built a dam by piling up branches and mud. The pool became a lake, deep enough for her to swim in at ease. Now she spent nearly all her time in the new lake and felt quite happy. When her husband returned, she showed him the dam she had made, and he was pleased. Before going away once more, he said, “I’ll be gone a long time, now that I know you are not afraid of being along.”
The woman built a little house of mud and branches in the center of the lake. After a swim she would go into it and rest. At night she would return to the hunting house on land, but as soon as she waked in the morning, she would go down to the lake again.
Eventually she slept in her lake lodge all night, and when her husband came back, she felt uncomfortable staying with him at the house. Now she was pregnant and kept more to herself, and she preferred to stay in her lake lodge even when her husband was home. To pass the time, she enlarged the lake by building the dam higher. She made another dam downstream, and then another, until she had a number of small lakes all connected to the large one in which she had her lodge.
The hunter went away on a last long journey. He had enough fur and food to make them very wealthy, and he planned that they would move back to his village after this trip. The woman, whose child was due soon, stayed in the water all day and slept in her lodge, which by now it was partly submerged with its entrance under water.
When the hunter returned this time, he could not find his wife. He search for many days, put could not find any sign of her. Finally he realized that she had been taken by a supernatural power. He returned to the lake she had built and started to drum and chant. While he was singing and crying his dirge, a figure emerged from the lake. It was a strange animal, in its mouth a stick which it was gnawing. On each side of the animal were two smaller ones, also gnawing sticks.
Then the largest figure, which wore a hat shaped like a gnawed stick, spoke. “Don’t be so sad! It is I, your wife, and your two children. We have returned to our home in the water. Now that you have seen me, you will use me as a crest. Call me the Woman-Beaver, and the crest Remanants-of-Chewing- Stick. The children are First Beaver, and you will refer to them in your dirge as the Offspring of Woman-Beaver.”
After she had spoken, she disappeared into the waters, and the hunter saw her no more.
Dr. Sheldon Green (right), Department Head, and Alan Steeves (left), artist, shake hands after art piece is installed.