Six and one half miles west of Chesaw on the old stage coach road from Republic to Oroville and Conconully is the legendary Hee Hee Stone, an Indian belief.

There have been many mysterious legends connected with the Hee Hee Stone, handed down from generation to generation.

Tales of the Hee Hee Stone were once filtered through smoke of Indian tribal councils and chiefs, and even today the stories of this rock, most sacred piece of ground in Northeastern Washington to the Indian tribes, are still sifted out in pipe smoke around fireplaces on winter evenings.

Once a shrine, the stone is now a crumbling ledge of rock, difficult for history buffs to locate. This is the spot, one legend goes, why the Hee Hee Stone is an Indian belief.

The Siwashes ( generic term for all Indians ) have always lived here. The Indians along the Okanogan became infected with some distemper, not unlike leprosy, and it threatened to destroy the whole Indian nation. The priest of the Siwashes talked every day with the Great Spirit who told him to tell his people that he would send a spirit to talk to them, and that on a certain day all of the people should gather at the place named to receive the messenger of the skies.

The place designated was the same stone which is so sacred to the Siwashes. On the day appointed by the Siwashes, Indians came from hundreds of miles and gathered here, all dressed in there buckskins and colors, to see whether or not the priest, who was also the medicine man, had told the truth or was only dreaming. At ten o’clock in the morning the priest pointed toward Mt. Bonaparte and thousands of eyes looked in that direction. Soon an image began to appear in the southern skies which assumed the form of an angel, and before the astonished Siwashes could fall to the ground and pray the heavenly spirit had alighted upon the Hee Hee Stone.

"She" was radiantly beautiful and immediately began to talk to the afflicted people. She told them that their cry for help had been heard by the Great Spirit and that she had come to help them. She motioned all who were suffering from the epidemic to come near her and be healed. Within a short time the afflicted were transformed into a host of shouting Siwashes, rejoicing in the perfect health that had been given them.

Their Indian priest explained to them that she would come again sometime in the future, but that they must use the means that she would provide if they wanted to retain their good health which she had given them. She then distributed camas seed among them, which became an important staple of the Indians and urged that they be planted everywhere, the roots of which when eaten would prevent a return of the disease from which they had suffered. She wished them be of good cheer, to deal fairly with one another, and that some time she would come again. While the shouts that greeted this announcement were echoing over these hills, she was caught up in the air and disappeared in the southern skies in the direction from which she had come, and ever since she has been known to the Siwashes as Queen Camas, the divine spirit from the sky that heeled our people.

The Indians have never ceased to worship this rock, invariably leaving something upon it as they pass by. Now, is it a wonder, that the Siwashes for thousands of years have worshipped this rock? It’s a real old Indian belief and still is.

Six miles west of Chesaw, on the state road to Oroville, is a rugged pile known as the “Hee Hee Stone.” It is a large, upright boulder, somewhat in the shape of the human body, and is the object of worship among the Indians. There are many stories concerning this stone, but the most popular among them appears to be the following:

Many years ago there were two tribes of Indians in this part of the country; one of the Okanogan and the other on the banks of Myers Creek. These two tribes were continually at war with one another, like the Capulets and Montagues, and during the course of a desperate battle the chief of the Okanogan tribe was captured. The beautiful daughter of the chief of the Meyers Creek tribe nursed him through a dangerous illness, with the usual, but romantic result. They fell in love with each other and determined to elope. The chief of the Okanogan’s, praying to the Great Spirit, had a vision in which it was revealed that they would escape and be happy, providing the princess did not look back. But, womanlike, after she thought they were safely on the way, she did look back, and laughed, whereat she was turned into stone for her disobedience.

From that period, the legend runs, a legend combining the elements of Lot’s wife and Romeo and Juliet, the Indians have never ceased to worship this rock, invariably leaving something upon it as they pass by. At present it is strewn with a motley array of old clothes, silk handkerchiefs, leather straps, small pieces of money, arrow heads, etc. There is, however, still another version of the story of this mythical monument in the wilderness. It is one, too, having a wild, superstitious strain quite frequently observed in Indian folk-lore. This version was related by a youthful red man to the editor of the Meyers Creek News. The Indian prefaced his story with the observation that there were many traditions concerning the Hee Hee Stone, but he could contribute but one. He said: “The story is all nonsense of the long fight between the two tribes during which an Indian maiden was captured from the Nez Perces, who, on looking towards the home of her people, to the east, against the commands of her captors, was turned into the rock which is now the Hee Hee Stone. Those stories are only repeated among white men and Chinamen. I will give you the true story:

This is the spot, once legend goes, where one of the Okanogan tribe’s beloved chiefs fell in battle with the Okanogan tribe’s deadly enemies, the Kettle Falls Indians. Thereafter all Indians passing the noble chief would leave an article of value as a token of love and reverence.

After the coming of the white man this act was almost discontinued because of “pale face” thievery, yet some of the oldest Indians today occasionally stop in passing, get off their horses and bow down at the crumbled mass, leaving some little token. A.J. McKinney of Chesaw reports seeing Jenny McDonald, one of the tribe’s oldest Indians, proceed to the roadside stone, and leave a valuable trinket. M.E. Hatcher of Omak also has seen Indians leave gifts near the stone.

There is, however, still another version of the story by the Indians themselves. There was an Indian woman that was traveling on foot from Idaho, she sat down there to have her lunch and she turned into a stone. Her name was (Amtos) an Indian name, of course. But the white man calls it the Hee Hee Stone.

When Amtos climbed up the hill to the ridge to have her lunch she turned into stone. Actually her name (Amtos) means to look over the country that was before her eyes. Now we will tell you why the Hee Hee Stone is an Indian belief. You see the Indians, if they went before the Hee Hee Stone, made a wish and left some money there, their wish would come true. Then if another Indian came along that needed tobacco, he’d take just enough money from the Hee Hee Stone for his tobacco and in exchange leave his hat or coat or any of his clothing there, make his wish and go on along.

Now you see the Hee Hee Stone was right beside the trial that was going through there. And all the Indians that were traveling through that trail stopped before the Hee Hee Stone and made their wish. Never was there once the Hee Hee Stone failed them. There was an Indian that went to the Hee Hee Stone, made a wish, and then left this horse there which was a mare. The mare had about six or seven colts. All the colts were blue in color. No one ever knows what happened to the mother horse and her pretty blue colts. My grandmother told me this story about the Hee Hee Stone. She passed away in 1920, and she was over a hundred years old.