Klamath Indians View Crater Lake as More Than a Rain-filled Caldera

Every year thousands of travelers visit Tum-sum-nee, the “Mountain-With-the-Top-Cut-Off.” The rain-filled volcanic caldera, created by the eruption of Mount Mazama 7,000 years ago, is more commonly known as Crater Lake.
The Klamath Indians believed the lake should only be visited by shamans, priests and other powerful people. This view was still prevalent in 1920 when the photographer Edward Curtis posed a Klamath Indian in Plains Indian garb at the edge of the lake. The man gave Curtis a pseudonym to conceal his identity from the tribe and to avoid offending mountain spirits.
The Klamaths have a collective memory of Mount Mazama’s eruption, their oral tradition describing “red-hot rocks as large as hills” tumbling through the sky, and oceans of flame devouring forests.
A writer for the Oregon Historical Society wrote, “the Klamath and other Native peoples from around the region sought visions at Crater Lake. It was a sacred landscape, a portal between the world of humans and the world of spirits.”
If the deep blue lake feels almost sacred for some visitors to the national Park, it’s a view shared literally by Klamath tradition.
Source: Caine, Allen. "Crater Lake and the Klamath." The Oregon History Project. Oregon Historical Society. Web. 15 Aug. 2013. .