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Overview

A Nass River prince enters the town of the Ghosts after acquiring extraordinary powers through his own encounter with death and the work of several shamans. Beyond the graveyard he sees a quiet-looking river crossed by a narrow bridge. Newly dead people first assemble in the chief’s house. The prince repeatedly takes their souls back to their bodies, and the people of the Ghost town resent the resulting loss of inhabitants. This specific narrative presents the dead as a political community with a chief, messengers, assemblies and collective plans.

The Ghosts attempt to kill the visitor by weakening the bridge. His supernatural helper warns him, but his feet fall into the river while his body reaches dry land. The burns reveal that the apparently quiet water is the Boiling-Oil River. The prince recovers and continues retrieving souls. The text also describes the dead undergoing a second death in this river and passing into animal forms; its ending specifically identifies the punished shamans’ transformation as coho salmon.

The chief next feigns illness to lure his opponent into the town, while other Ghosts attack the human settlement. Their arrows are dried nettles, and the villagers repel them with an offensive mixture. The chief supplies a skull rattle with a backbone handle, an apron fringed with bones and a crown of ribs. Following his helper, the prince defeats the chief: the earth swallows him and supernatural powers cast him into the burning river. The prince retains the skeletal regalia.

The town survives the defeat of its ruler. After the prince himself dies and appears as an owl, the Ghosts make him their new chief. He receives his relatives, punishes the human shamans responsible for his death and permits his former companions to retrieve some souls under a strict time limit. Their later breach of his command leaves them in the town permanently. The narrative thus changes the relation between the living and dead through a succession of rulers; it does not end with the destruction of the whole afterlife community.

Town beyond the graveyardNarrow bridge over burning riverChief receives newly dead soulsAssemblies plan collective attacksDried-nettle arrowsSecond death and salmon transformation
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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.

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Records & interpretation

Story 54, The Ghost Who Fought with the Great Shaman, complete pp. 322–330; 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 54, The Ghost Who Fought with the Great Shaman, complete pp. 322–330; 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 Ghost Who Fought with the Great ShamanResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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