In the story When grizzlies Walked Upright the author’s purpose in writing this story is to give an explanation of how the Native Americans came to be. It also explains the creation of Mount Shasta. It tells how a young girl, the daughter of the Sky Spirit, had been blow off the mountain by the Wind Spirit and found by a grizzly bear. She was brought up and raised by the bear, and later marries a bear. Their children become the first Native Americans. The Native Americans living around the mountain would never kill a grizzly bear because of this story.