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Overview
TsEgu’kskʷ survives a rival shaman’s attack by a carved squirrel that becomes alive at night. With three companions he travels downriver and lies on a red board while offerings burn at its end. He disappears beneath the sea into the house of G’itk’staqL. This chief gives him a land-otter-shaped club, a box with a whale-fin lid, and a wooden vessel. The club swims and cuts ice; the box assumes a killer-whale form and also opens a route through the frozen river.
His revenge is severe. The whale takes the enemy’s daughter and then other women when they fetch water, depriving the village of access. The otter club kills its inhabitants, except for a man away hunting. In a subsequent raid TsEgu’kskʷ himself is killed and beheaded, but his head escapes the attackers’ canoe, swims back to the body and rejoins it. Later the surviving enemy poisons him. A helper warns him beforehand, and replacement of his intestines with those of a dog restores him after four days. His discarded intestines explain the sound of river rapids in the story.
Gulls rescue him from another near drowning. These repeated recoveries do not make the final episode a simple declaration of immortality. During smallpox, a protective red pole fails and other shamans predict his death. Arrows shot toward the sun accompany blood appearing on his face. He enters a coffin and dies; four nights later he breaks its bindings and appears as a white owl. Four men fail to catch him. He falls back into the box, whose bindings return, while the protective staff crumbles.
The owl’s last words foretell that nobody will remain, and the account ends with the community’s deaths in what it calls the first smallpox visitation. This is Chief Mountain’s recorded narrative, not an independently dated epidemic history. Its named protagonist and sea-helper episodes distinguish it from Henry Tate’s owl-form Ghost chief, although both accounts give an unsuccessful capture of an owl a decisive role in a failed return.
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, TsEgu’kskʷ, pp.231–233, 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.
- 01
Tsimshian Texts: Nass River Dialect
TsEgu’kskʷ, pp.231–233; 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.
- Primary textBoas 1902 original Nass River collectionResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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