Owl wife of the restored hunter (Tate’s account)

Overview

In the story of the blind Git-q!a°da hunter, his wife hides a bear he has killed and deprives him of its meat. Their son resists her instructions and secretly supports his father. After a supernatural visitor restores the hunter’s sight at a lake, the man returns home with the boy and closes the house against the woman. Her son and husband refuse to answer her repeated appeals to enter during the cold night.

Before dawn she becomes a hooting owl. The hunter opens the door and sees the bird fly away and settle in a nearby tree. He orders her into the woods and resumes hunting. This is an explicit transformation of the wife; it is not evidence that every owl in the tradition is a transformed or morally dangerous woman.

Years later, while camping alone in the mountains, the man hears an owl and again insults the wife he recognises in it. The calls cease. When he steps outside, the owl flies immediately over his head and he falls dead. No physical attack or spoken curse is described. The ending gives the transformed woman lethal agency rather than ending the story with the hunter’s recovered sight and prosperity.

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 37, The Blind Git-q!a°da, complete pp. 246–250; 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 37, The Blind Git-q!a°da, complete pp. 246–250; 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: story 37, The Blind Git-q!a°daResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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