Eagle from the Deep

awa tus sum

When warm currents from south come our way up here, it brings strange sea creatures we do not recognize. When this happened in the early 1900’s, my grandfather, a young man then, saw and witnessed such creatures: A male and female. Giant sea turtles between Hesquiadt and Friendly Cove in the open ocean, swimming and surfing along in the waves. It is what my grandfather and people call ‘awa tus sum’. Eagle from the Deep. Other creatures showed themselves up and down our coast.

Many generations ago a young man was fishing between the waters of Hesquiaht and Nootka Island when he saw something huge swimming through the ocean. The next day a second one was spotted, so now there was a female and a male. The fisherman saw them flying through the water beside his boat but when he reached down to touch them, they dove deeply down and away. These were the giant sea turtles that appeared when trade winds and warm currents came our way.