I wouldn't totally rule it out, but the basis for this claim is very, very thin.
There are several other problems with the story that should make you suspicious:
- There are several "tells" that if this is even a real story it has been heavily edited. Neither of the links provides a reliable narrative from an indigenous source. Also note that the "klamathtribenews" link says there are many stories about how it was formed but only tells us the one that we want to hear.
- One of the articles claims the same people has occupied the area for 13k years. This is extremely unlikely, has little evidence backing it, and suggests the story is being used as part of the political justification for territorial claims.
Meanwhile, we know peoples from other areas were perfectly capable of coming to a new area, then making inferences and drawing conclusions about what they saw geographically - we have lots of examples of the Greeks doing this, for example. The ideas behind geology didn't spring out of a vacuum in the 1800s. Anyone who understands the idea behind "volcano" would have also understood why a crater lake existed, even if they had never seen that eruption.
You believe it based on your own (very mainstream) biases of “primitive” cultures. There is no evidence of your position, it’s a fantasy you have wrapped around something you don’t understand or appreciate.
> You believe it based on your own (very mainstream) biases of “primitive” cultures.
Usually I have been accused of precisely the opposite, particularly in this case, where I commonly assert that people hugely underestimate the technological and social capacity of Native Americans, particularly in North America. If anything, I am suggesting you are underestimating the peoples in the area by suggesting they could not have applied their understanding of natural processes to understand a past event they did not personally witness.
> , it’s a fantasy you have wrapped around something you don’t understand or appreciate.
I understand perfectly well. But when people make absurd claims like "our people have been here for 13k years", this is a religious claim, not a historical claim (it would be an absurd one), and you should understand when I take what you say alongside that with a huge grain of salt.