Living canoes of Chief Peace (Tate’s account)

Overview

Chief Peace’s paired canoes are flat-beamed vessels carved with otter figures, their ends formed as animal mouths. They carry his daughter Peace Woman and her husband on a board laid across them. The account treats them as responsive travellers: the chief shakes and whistles to start them, and during the ocean crossing their thwarts, bows and sterns make noise when they stop.

The chief has explained that creaking and failure to proceed signal hunger. Following his daughter’s direction, the prince feeds them seal food, then whistles; the vessels resume their rapid journey. They rest four times before reaching Metlakahtla. The story’s precise feeding instructions are part of this supernatural voyage, not ordinary canoe construction or navigation.

Their cargo also changes scale. Before departure, Chief Peace shakes the sterns to compress successive loads of whale, sea-lion and seal provisions, making room for more. At the destination his daughter shakes the emptied boats repeatedly to release those stored loads until four houses are filled. Once unloading is complete, she shakes and whistles again, and the canoes return swiftly to their home in the ocean. No paddling crew is specified for that return.

The source gives animal-mouth carvings and otter imagery without saying that the boats are transformed otters or a separate animal species. They remain a paired animate vehicle within the household’s story. Their feeding, movement and return distinguish them from merely decorated vessels; the compressed cargo is manipulated by Chief Peace and his daughter rather than assigned to the canoes as an independently chosen act.

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 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

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