This mound rises above the Idaho earth. But it isn’t your ordinary geological feature—it’s central to the origin story of the Nez Perce.
Iceye-ye (Coyote) appears in many of the Nez Perce stories. In the Nez Perce origin story, Iceye-ye confronts a monster who was eating all of the people and the animals. He then tricks the monster into swallowing him.
Once inside the monster, Iceye-ye uses a stone knife to cut it open and free all the people and animals trapped within. Parts of the Monster were then distributed all across the land, thus creating the many peoples of the land. Different parts of the Monster are visible today across the landscape.
