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Paper short abstract

The paper examines the Klamath narrative about the formation of Crater Lake (giiwas), tracing its oral tradition to the Mount Mazama eruption 7,600 years ago, and situates it within a framework of geomythology and the “new euhemerism,” drawing on historical ethnographic sources and 2024 fieldwork.

Paper long abstract

The Klamaths (ʔewksiknii maqlaqs), together with the Modocs (moowat’aakkni maqlaqs) and Yahooskin Paiutes (nɨmɨ), constitute the federally recognized Klamath Tribes in present-day southern Oregon (US) and have preserved in their oral tradition the story of the formation of Crater Lake (giiwas), which recounts a mythological struggle between two powerful non-human beings from the local ontology, ultimately resulting in the lake’s creation. First recorded in the 19th century, the narrative has become a foundational case study for geomythology—an interdisciplinary research field that focuses on the traditions of pre-scientific cultures, where, in addition to folk explanations of specific landforms, fossils, etc., geomythologists search for mythologized accounts of actual (often catastrophic) geological events from the past. The version of the Klamath geomyth used by modern researchers was presented in a mid-20th-century anthology of Native American folklore and is a rewording of the earlier text. This paper emphasizes the ethnographic sources on which the geomythological interpretation is based, tracing the cultural transmission of the Klamath narrative back to approximately 7,600 years ago, when the volcanic crater lake was formed as a result of the Mount Mazama eruption. It aims to outline the basic assumptions of geomythology, situate them within a set of approaches collectively referred to here as the “new euhemerism,” and discuss the current state of anthropological knowledge regarding the Klamath geomyth, as well as the related cultural and religious significance of Crater Lake, based on the analysis of original historical ethnographic materials and fieldwork conducted in 2024 on the Klamath Tribes Reservation.