FROG DANCE

Among the Gitxsan people where I live on the Skeena River, frog is one of the main clans of the people. When I think of frog I realize the importance of transformation and how this process is symbolized in the transformation from water being with a tail swimming through the lake to a four-legged creature hopping about on land. Transformation is an important theme throughout northwest coast legends and frog is the icon.

When my son was two years old, I moved back to the north country and immediately witnessed his love of frogs. There was a day in the first week of May when we had empty boxes lying about the yard and our boy Wakas had found his first frog. It was a busy time and I finally noticed my boy was nowhere to be seen, I scurried about like a worried parent looking for him. I hustled down the path to the river calling out his name hearing nothing but the birds and rushing water. As I walked back to the house through the empty boxes I stopped to see this little boy sitting in a large cardboard box, lovingly holding this little frog in cupped hands. That day I did the Frog Dance fearing for my son only to find him safe and loving his first Skeena river frog.