"I am the fastest, the smartest, and the strongest salmon," he boasted.

How Salmon Finds His Way Home

by Kelly Wilson

SALMON HAD MANY GIFTS. He could see the algae glowing green in the sun's rays and water bugs skimming the surface above him. Salmon could hear the river lapping against the rocks nearby. He heard other fish flipping and splashing as they darted up and downstream. Salmon took a long, deep breath. He smelled the flesh and bones of his ancestors, spawning done, settling into the bottom of the river. It smelled like home.

Salmon loved his home, but he also loved his gifts. "I am the fastest, the smartest, and the strongest salmon," he boasted.

Other salmon grew tired of his bragging. Salmon Father asked Raven for help.

"What do you want me to do?" Raven asked.

"Stop that boasting!" said Father Salmon. "It is gift enough to be a salmon."

After much thought, Raven came up with a plan. He found Salmon frolicking under the river's surface.

"Salmon, I hear that you're the fastest swimmer," said Raven.

"In all the river!" said Salmon. "I'll prove it! Where do you want me to swim?"

"To the ocean," said Raven. "If you are not the fastest, you must give me one of your gifts."

"And if I am the fastest?" asked Salmon.

"Then it will be true, and you'll keep your gifts," said Raven.

Salmon swam downstream, out of his river home and into the larger river. Waves ran across his scales. He tasted the salt of the ocean.

At the place where the river met the ocean, he stopped. "See, I am the fastest," he said to Raven, gliding above him.

"But I made it to the mouth of the river before you did," said Raven. "So I am the fastest."

Salmon flipped his tail and turned to go home.

"And you owe me one of your gifts," said Raven.

Salmon stopped. He would miss seeing the sun's rays shining on wet rocks.

Raven took Salmon's sight.

"I hear that you're the strongest," Raven said.

"I am!" insisted Salmon. "When I prove it, you must give me my sight back."

"Clever," said Raven. "If you're not, I will take another of your gifts. You must prove your strength by swimming into the ocean and making the largest wave with a flip of your tail."

Salmon swam from the mouth of the river into the ocean, waves crashing above him.

Thrusting up toward the surface of the water, he tumbled over and over in the ocean waves. Finally, he crashed through the surface and flipped his tail. "There!" He said, exhausted with the effort. "That was a large splash!"

"It was," agreed Raven. "But Whale's splash was much bigger."

Salmon frowned and looked across the waves. He saw Whale's tail rise up into the air and splash down, creating a curtain of water.

"And now you owe me a gift," said Raven. Salmon would miss hearing waves lapping against river rocks.

Raven took Salmon's gift of hearing.

Now, Salmon had but one gift left. He flipped around and swam through the crashing waves toward the river, toward home.

Blind and deaf, Salmon wasn't sure where he was going. Salt filled his gills.

Soon he felt the water calm. He didn't taste any more salt. Salmon rested, floating in the mouth of the river. He sniffed. The smell of sun-warmed algae and bones beckoned. Home.

Salmon fought upstream against the current, following the scent. He flipped up rapids and around giant boulders. He didn't stop to eat, for fear of getting caught by a fisherman or a bear. He knew he was home when he could no longer smell other rivers.

"Clever," said Raven.

"Why can I now hear?" asked Salmon. "I thought you took my other gifts."

"You have found your way home using the one gift you had left, so I gave those other gifts back to you."

Salmon somersaulted with joy.

"But," continued Raven, "every salmon after you must travel to the ocean when they're young. When they're ready to spawn-to lay and fertilize their eggs-they must return to their river homes."

"How will they do this?" asked Salmon.

"They'll use your greatest gift," said Raven, "by finding the scent of their rivers."

Salmon knew how desperate he had been without his gifts of sight and hearing. He remembered how alone he had felt, struggling to find his way home through river waters. "I'll teach them," said Salmon.

"It should be so," said Raven.

Author Kelly Wilson is an elementary school teacher and writer who lives in Gladstone, Oregon. This original legend was inspired by her fascination with how salmon use their sense of smell to return home to spawn in the rivers and streams where they were born.