K’a’lk’alo-itl, Squamish basket-carrying woman

Overview

Boas’s Squamish section describes K’a’lk’alo-itl as a large, dangerous woman living in the forest and carrying a basket on her back. She finds boys asleep on shore after swimming and places them in it. The first captured, T’ëtk’ë’isten, lies at the bottom with a knife. Boas glosses his name as one who is always cutting. He cuts out the basket’s base and drops the boys through it one after another. The woman hears them fall but mistakes the noises for branches cracking beneath her feet. A few captives are still in the basket when she reaches home.

Discovering the loss, she smears resin over the remaining boys’ eyes. At T’ëtk’ë’isten’s advice they close their eyes tightly during this. She heats stones in a large fire to cook them, but its warmth melts the resin and restores their vision without her noticing. The boy asks her to dance; while the captives beat time, he pushes her into the flames and holds her there with a stick until she burns. They then return home. The cooking plan therefore fails, and the recorded ending is the woman’s death and the survivors’ return, not an ongoing captivity.

This account does not give her a backward-pointing foot, a metal body, an invulnerable hide, or the special anatomy of another community’s basket-carrying figure. The knife, the captives’ cooperation and the fire’s unintended effect explain the escape within this telling. Similarity to a wider child-taking motif supports comparison, but does not establish that the name is simply an alias for Tik’aisis in the separately recorded Cowichan household narrative.

Origins & earliest records

This account appears in Boas’s Squamish VI.3, pp.57–58 of the 1895 German collection. The named regional section is retained as provenance; neither the publication date nor the collector’s translation establishes when the tradition began. This episode supplies no individually named narrator.

Records & interpretation

Complete Squamish VI.3, pp.57–58 and original page images inspected. Regional narrative attribution is distinguished from the collector’s spelling and general translation mediation. This record supports the described tradition, not the physical existence of its beings.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas

   Franz Boas · 1895

   Complete Squamish VI.3, pp.57–58 including endings and stated variants, read in German and checked against original printed pages. Preface describes multiple oral translation routes; no unrecorded individual interview date or direct Indigenous-language collation is claimed.

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. PrimaryBoas 1895, Squamish VI.3, pp.57–58Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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