Case file · Folklore / legend
Legend of Multnomah Falls
A Multnomah story tells that a sickness struck the people until a chief's daughter gave her life by leaping from the cliff, after which the waterfall began to flow there.
1953 CE · 45.58, -122.12 · status: legend
The account
The best-known telling was printed by Ella E. Clark in 'Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest' (1953). Similar sacrifice stories are told at other gorge waterfalls.
The sceptical view
Retellings for tourists have reshaped the story, and how much of the printed version reflects older tradition is debated.