Wa She Shu area, the Washoe (or Washo). While we have to visualize what the landscape would have been without blacktop, motorized vehicles and hill upon hill of houses, Wa She Shu, translated “the People”, lived at the water’s edge of “Da ow aga” every spring to late fall, from the beginning of time as their tradition states. They did not move here from somewhere else, they had always been here. (“Da ow”, meaning lake, was later mispronounced by European settlers to the area after 1850 and Tahoe became the result.)
Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe
T
he beauty and majesty of Lake Tahoe today is an indication, but mere shadow of its brilliance and even wilder beauty during the time of the first people to the
The Washoe People still believe that the land, language and culture go together. As former chairman A. Brian Wallace of the Washoe Tribe said, “The health of the land and the health of the people are tied together, and what happens to the land also happens to the people. When the land suffers so too are the people.” It was with this ingrained belief that every wondrous
geographical feature of the People’s early territory was named and had a legend attached to it. Lake Tahoe was a large part of their lives and so we enjoy those stories and legends even today, explaining the natural wonders we experience around and in Lake Tahoe. Some of the Tribal practices described in the ongoing legends still go on today.
Water Babies and the Lady of the Lake Wa She Shu considered Cave Rock, at the south end of the Lake to be a sacred place, perhaps because of the awe a cave naturally inspires; especially to people who value great land formations in the way the Washoe do. In early days, only healers were allowed to go there, for their spiritual renewal. This was due in part to the presence of continued on page 4
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