Na-gun-a’ks (Tate’s account)

Overview

Chief Dragging Along Shore and three companions anchor beneath a cliff. Their anchor strikes the roof of Na-gun-a’ks’s house below, and the underwater chief sends an enslaved female codfish to investigate. Annoyed by the fish circling the canoe, the hunter injures her fins. After she returns weeping, Na-gun-a’ks has the entire sleeping company and canoe brought into his house. The title G’it-na-gun-a’ks names the place and later the human family; the host himself is Na-gun-a’ks.

Mouse Woman explains the offence and advises the hunter to offer the provisions aboard his canoe. She also prepares the visitors for a meal of whole seals. Three men, associated with the Killer-Whale crest, can swallow a seal each; the Eagle-affiliated steersman Holdamia cannot, and the host orders his portion cut up. The text explicitly makes this distinction within the party rather than assigning the same capacity to all human visitors.

The men remain for a year without experiencing ordinary hunger or knowing how long has passed. Before their departure, the chief invites beings of the rocks to a feast. Water floods his house when its door opens, then falls away to reveal the gathered guests. Na-gun-a’ks wears a killer-whale-shaped garment covered with horns. He shares the humans’ gifts with his fellows and asks them to spare the hunter and help his future hunting. This negotiated support develops from an encounter that began with injury and capture.

The chief gives Dragging Along Shore his horn-covered garment, crests, a carved house, a copper canoe and copper equipment. Holdamia receives a sea-apple-shell hat containing a living person and an abalone-inlaid box. The visitors return through foam and dense fog, finding themselves beneath the original cliff with marine growth covering their possessions. The copper canoe moves as swiftly as a bird but remains too heavy for ordinary helpers to carry ashore; its four returning occupants lift it themselves.

At later feasts, Holdamia opens the box and releases thick fog. Closing it clears the air, revealing seaweed, anemones and the extraordinary carved rooms within the human house. The hunter declares his family’s new name and flourishes under the underwater chief’s favour. The source’s marine images and its English rendering mermaid children belong to a particular set of gifts; they do not establish European mermaid ancestry.

Na-gun-a’ks’s continuing protection requires respect for fish. On a later journey, two companions maltreat a bullhead despite the chief’s warning. A third man reports the offence and is sent ashore, where he sees a whirlpool swallow the departing canoe. His report initially describes all aboard as lost, but the narrator distinguishes their fates: the offending men perish, while Dragging Along Shore lives in Na-gun-a’ks’s house. The final return below therefore differs from the first successful homecoming.

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 47, G’it-na-gun-a’ks, complete pp. 285–292; 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 47, G’it-na-gun-a’ks, complete pp. 285–292; 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: G’it-na-gun-a’ksResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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