A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Tate’s account places North, South, East and West Wind as chiefs at the world’s four corners. South Wind wants the land green and joins East and West against the freezing North. Their first settlement allows six green months, occasional winter rain, spring thaw and gentle summer breezes, with peaceful intervals before autumn and spring. The agreement does not remain the story’s final arrangement.
The chiefs have weather-associated children. South Wind’s sons include Proud Rain-Wind, Excrement Face, Rain Under the Knee and Going Behind the Mountains; his daughter is Drops of a Spring of Water. West’s sons are evening clouds, East’s are mountain and morning clouds, and North’s twins are Frozen and Freezer. The daughter eventually marries into North’s household. Its residents feel warm where she suffers intense cold, even beside her husband.
The princess carves a yellow-cedar object into a duck and sends it to her parents; it becomes a living messenger. Her brothers attempt rescue in succession. The first two approach as clouds but are driven away, and the third’s rain freezes. Going Behind the Mountains succeeds as a narrow cloud pointed at both ends. The other brothers then bring heavy rain that melts the ice and floods North’s house. The princess carries her pleading sister-in-law, now a floating piece of ice, on her leg; the story connects this act with women’s cold legs.
The rescuers initially demand that North surrender two of his six months. Back home, West proposes a further settlement: three months each, with North governing winter, East spring, West summer and South autumn. All four ultimately agree. The changing agreements make the seasonal order the outcome of negotiation after conflict, not an unchanging allocation present from the beginning.
The daughter’s marriage and rescue belong to this particular story. The separately told Nalq cycle gives wind daughters other marriages and weather explanations; those narrative households should not be forced into a single reconciled family tree.
A later tale, Local Winter in Git-q!a°da, explicitly returns to the duck messenger. After a prolonged local snowstorm destroys an upriver community, a surviving couple escapes and eventually reaches four young men beyond a lake and mountain. The text identifies these men as offspring of the wild duck sent by South Wind’s daughter from North Wind’s freezing house. The couple’s daughter marries the eldest brother and repeatedly bears four children at a birth, a pattern compared with ducks laying eggs. Their descendants become numerous, and snowdrifts accompany their movements. The ending connects this ancestry with a warning against throwing stones at wild ducks in winter. This is a narrative genealogy and weather explanation, not an independent historical account of a community’s biological origin.
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.
Records & interpretation
Story 10, The Four Great Chiefs of the Winds, complete pp. 121–125 through North Wind’s agreement to the final law; preface pp. 31–32. Story 38, Local Winter in Git-q!a°da, complete pp. 250–252, supplies the explicit duck-descendant connection.
In the literature
“They all agreed to these words and went to their homes.”
10. The Four Great Chiefs of the Winds, complete pp.121–125; brief prose p.122 · Franz Boas, based on Henry W.Tate’s free interlinear rendering, Preface31
South, East and West Winds defeat North Wind and negotiate an initial division between green and frozen months. South Wind’s daughter marries into North Wind’s household and suffers from its cold. An animated Duck takes news to her parents. Her four brothers attempt rescue; the fourth succeeds where the first three fail, melting the ice. They take their sister home and reduce North Wind’s share. A final agreement assigns three months to each Wind, which North Wind also accepts. Separate named children of the four households appear in this narrative.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Tsimshian Mythology
Story 10, The Four Great Chiefs of the Winds, complete pp. 121–125 through North Wind’s agreement to the final law; preface pp. 31–32. Story 38, Local Winter in Git-q!a°da, complete pp. 250–252, supplies the explicit duck-descendant connection.
- 02
Tsimshian Mythology — 10. The Four Great Chiefs of the Winds, complete pp.121–125
Washington: Government Printing Office,1916; Thirty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,1909–1910. Complete selected English narrative(s) and attached technical footnotes read in retained OCR. Original selected opening/identity/ending pages visually checked. Preface31–32 translation provenance independently inspected. Comparative chapters not included in this reading claim.
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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Tsimshian Mythology — 10. The Four Great Chiefs of the Winds, complete pp.121–125
Washington: Government Printing Office,1916; Thirty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,1909–1910. Complete selected English narrative(s) and attached technical footnotes read in retained OCR. Original selected opening/identity/ending pages visually checked. Preface31–32 translation provenance independently inspected. Comparative chapters not included in this reading claim.
- South, East and West Winds defeat North Wind and negotiate an initial division between green and frozen months. South Wind’s daughter marries into North Wind’s household and suffers from its cold. An animated Duck takes news to her parents. Her four brothers attempt rescue; the fourth succeeds where the first three fail, melting the ice. They take their sister home and reduce North Wind’s share. A final agreement assigns three months to each Wind, which North Wind also accepts. Separate named children of the four households appear in this narrative.
No whole volume or independent Tsimshian translation claimed; no songs, prayers, net-making procedures, food processing or ritual preparation reproduced.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textBoas/Tate 1916: Story 10, The Four Great Chiefs of the Winds, complete pp. 121–125 through North Wind’s agreement to the final law; preface pp. 31–32.Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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