Sky chief and his children (Chief Mountain’s account)

Overview

Chief Mountain’s Origin of G’ispawaduwE’da begins with a retaliatory attack that destroys a settlement. Wa’g’ixs and her daughter Sqawo survive in hiding. Animal suitors fail the mother’s demand for a powerful husband for her daughter. A thunderclap announces a man whose club overturns the earth and raises a forest, then restores the ground. He offers to take both women to his home above. The mother repeatedly opens her eyes during the ascent despite his warning and falls; he finally places her in a tree, where her voice accounts for moaning heard in the wind.

Sqawo reaches the sky household of Hislegiyo’ontkʷ. Although the chief sleeps separately, sunlight makes her pregnant. She bears three sons and two daughters. The sons shoot one another’s eyes with arrows; a sister removes the arrows and heals the injuries by sucking the wounds. Their father eventually sends the children and their houses down to the old village, while their mother remains above. The account names the children, but translated personal names such as Headless are not sufficient evidence of a literal bodily form.

When enemies attack, the eldest son uses the club to bury their settlement. He first restores it with a warning, but renewed aggression brings another burial and their destruction. Later, the brothers make war more widely and misuse the gift. Their sky father causes them to forget the club at a place whose name the narrative explains through that loss. Their eventual settlement and descendants conclude the account.

The story ties supernatural ancestry, conflict, place names and ceremonial privileges together. Its claims concerning descendants and abalone ornaments belong to this recorded narrative; they are not independent verification of present-day lineage or practice. The sky household is treated as one connected account rather than turning a named Indigenous clan into a category of monsters.

Origins & earliest records

Franz Boas, Tsimshian Texts, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 27 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902). Recorded at Kinkolith, at the Nass River’s mouth, in November–December 1894. Boas’s introduction, dated June 1899, names Philip, Moses, Chief Mountain and Moody as the collection’s narrators. The volume prints the language it calls Nîsqa’E alongside English translation; individual story headings identify their tellers.

Records & interpretation

Chief Mountain’s English supplement, Origin of G’ispawaduwE’da, pp.221–225, read in full. Introduction p.5 identifies the Nass River recording context; the supplement names this teller. Colonial-era transcription and English translation mediate the account.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Tsimshian Texts: Nass River Dialect

   Chief Mountain, teller; Franz Boas, recorder and translator · 1902

   Origin of G’ispawaduwE’da, pp.221–225; Chief Mountain attribution and introduction p.5.

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 1902 original Nass River collectionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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