A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A Metlakahtla prince gambles away his property and family, then leaves in shame after his wife contrasts his rejected meal with the food of Chief Peace’s daughter. Two canoe men take him to that distant chief’s island. Mouse Woman identifies the household and tells him how to present his remaining fat, tobacco and copper. The small gifts expand into impressive quantities before the chief, his wife and his daughter’s three uncles. Chief Peace accepts him as his daughter’s husband.

When the prince becomes homesick, his father-in-law sends the couple back with provisions in two living canoes. Chief Peace compresses successive loads by shaking the vessels, while Peace Woman reverses this process at Metlakahtla until the gifts fill four houses. She welcomes her husband’s child from his first marriage. Later, with six ash digging-sticks at the low-water shore, she raises whales and other sea animals from the sand. Their distribution and sale bring wealth and feasts to his relatives and neighbouring communities.

Peace Woman wears a plume behind her ear and uses it to test the water brought by her husband. When his former wife catches him at the water source and persuades him to speak, the next test produces slime. Peace Woman accuses him of continuing to love his first wife and walks away across the sea. He follows on the same visible line over the water. She becomes cloud-like and cannot be embraced; repeatedly she warns him to return. When she looks back, he sinks and dies.

Her father mourns and rebukes her on learning what happened. Lowering a bag net through an opening in his house floor, he recovers the prince’s body part by part. He arranges the pieces and leaps over them four times, restoring the young man. Peace Woman celebrates with a feast and praises the welcome she received from her husband’s relatives. The prince chooses to remain with her and her parents. The restoration is Chief Peace’s act; his daughter’s lethal backward glance and productive shore gifts are distinct powers, not evidence that her name guarantees uniformly peaceful behaviour.

Gifts expand and compressDaughter brings marine abundancePlume reveals changed waterCloud-like departure across the seaFather retrieves and revives son-in-law
01

Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Mythology, based on texts recorded by Henry W. Tate, published in 1916 in the Bureau of American Ethnology’s thirty-first report for 1909–1910. Boas translated Tate’s free interlinear English renderings of his Tsimshian texts. The preface notes Tate’s editorial choices and some influence from published collections; the 1916 volume omits the original-language text.

02

Records & interpretation

Story 28, The Town of Chief Peace, complete pp. 207–214, including Tate’s explanatory footnotes; preface pp. 31–32.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Tsimshian Mythology

    Henry W. Tate, recorder; Franz Boas, translator and editor · 1916

    Story 28, The Town of Chief Peace, complete pp. 207–214, including Tate’s explanatory footnotes; preface pp. 31–32.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: The Town of Chief PeaceResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

FT·2588 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑