Së’nötlk’ë and Nuk’ö’mak’en, Squamish

Overview

Boas’s Squamish narrative gives Së’nötlk’ë one head at the front and another at the tail end. Its approach brings a terrifying cry and falling trees. Nuk’ö’mak’en leaves his wife after promising to return from a four-year pursuit. The serpent crushes timber, furrows the ground, sheds scales and leaves dead deer and mountain goats behind. When swimming, both heads point forward and cross as it moves. The hunter repeatedly delays attacking while bathing, fasting and obtaining strengthening plants and clothing. The narrative describes preparation and fear rather than an effortless victory by an already invulnerable hero.

Eventually he makes a canoe and two wooden spears, pierces each head, and immediately falls dead as the lake rises. After ten days he awakens with his face damaged by creatures the German text uncertainly identifies as salmon lice. The lake is dry, and only bones and tongues remain. He wears the lower jaws and tongues and becomes a powerful practitioner. The four-year pursuit is stated again; the text does not turn each ten-day preparation into a separate calendar year.

The remains are difficult to control. People who see him fall dead, and even his warning gestures kill. He revives the victims with plants, but hiding the relics under a tree fells it, placing them under a rock breaks it, and wrapping them in blankets fails to contain the danger. Finally, applying a powerful preparation to his hands lets others encounter him safely. Villagers offer daughters as wives and valuable clothing after he restores the dead. He returns to his parents and to the first wife who has waited. When raiders later attack his community, he deliberately raises the relics to kill them, then revives his own slain people. The regional conflict belongs to the historical story, not to a claim of inherent qualities in present-day peoples.

The separately printed version 5a changes several decisive details. An unnamed newly married son initially promises four days away, but the fourth winter arrives before a dream reveals the serpent’s lake. He attacks with four spears and falls as if dead. After four days, the bird A’qoë drops excrement on his mouth and calls him to rise, causing him to awaken. He remains another year until the serpent’s flesh decays and takes the bones under his mantle. Those who see him die, and he makes them well again. His wife has taken another husband but returns to him. This bird-assisted revival and remarriage ending cannot be substituted for the named hero’s ten-day death and waiting wife in the preceding account.

Origins & earliest records

This account appears in Boas’s Squamish VI.5 and 5a, pp.58–61 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.5 and 5a, pp.58–61 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.5 and 5a, pp.58–61 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.5 and 5a, pp.58–61Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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