A few weeks back I went to Asotin, where the Moray eels used to come up from the sea to spawn. Chief Looking Glass’s camp was there, at the fishery. Here’s the creek, again.

See how she flicks her tail out into the current of the snake, like an eel? For reference,  here’s a moray eel.

Source

During my time in Nimíipuu country, on the Clearwater and the Snake, in early June, I learned that every village is backed by rounded hill formations, and faces expressive, jagged ones in which it is easy to read animal forms. So I made the trip across the Snake to stand at the mouth of Asotin (eel) Creek to see what I could see. To my surprise (and joy), I saw an eel, facing the stream mouth from the Idaho shore.

Such mysteries.

Note: An imagined eel is no less powerful in determining human relationships to the environment, and hence the sustainability of the environment, than a physical one. “Nature” is an idea imposed on this spiritual space.