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Tlingit and Haida Tradition

Tlingit and Haida Tradition traditions, cosmology, and ancient lore.

Region: Pacific Northwest Coast
Period: Ancient oral lore & potlatch ceremonies
11 Recorded Entries

Mythological Figures & Lore

Showing all 11 records
Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon
deity

Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon

In Tlingit tradition, the father of Fog Woman, named in the story of her marriage to Raven and the origin of the salmon run.

fogsalmon
Djilaqons
deity

Djilaqons

In Haida tradition, the ancestress of the Eagle clans, regarded as the special patroness of everyone of the Eagle side of Haida society.

ancestry of the Eagle clansthe Eagle moiety
Fog Woman
deity

Fog Woman

In Tlingit tradition, the daughter of Chief Fog-Over-the-Salmon who marries Raven and creates a run of sockeye salmon, then withdraws it and herself into the water after he mistreats her, explaining why salmon return to Tlingit rivers each year.

fogsalmonabundance
Gonakadet
creature

Gonakadet

A Tlingit sea being, in one Swanton text the head chief of the killer-whale people under the ocean, whose appearance brings good fortune and wealth; often shown with the head of a wolf or bear and a finned body, and carved on house posts and mortuary poles.

Beneath the ocean and lakes
Kaatsʼ
hero

Kaatsʼ

A Tlingit hunter of the Kaagwaantaan clan at Sitka who married a bear woman and lived with her and their cubs, until, back among people, a moment's tenderness toward his human family cost him his life.

Heroism
Kóoshdaa Káa
creature

Kóoshdaa Káa

The Land Otter People of Tlingit belief, who take the drowned and the lost and slowly transform them into land otters, often appearing in the shape of a lost person's relatives.

Shorelines, islands, and forest edges of Southeast Alaska
Master Carpenter
deity

Master Carpenter

A supernatural craftsman of Haida tradition who, in a Skidegate story Swanton recorded, sets out to build a canoe to make war on South-East, the storm wind.

woodworkingcanoescraft
Naas Shaak Aankáawu
deity

Naas Shaak Aankáawu

In the Tlingit telling of Raven and the box of daylight, the wealthy old man living at the head of the Nass River who keeps the stars, moon, and sun locked in nested boxes, until Raven tricks his way into his household to steal them.

daylightwealth
Naatsilanéi
hero

Naatsilanéi

The Tlingit carver who made the first killer whales from yellow cedar, after other woods failed, and sent them into the sea with the instruction never to harm human beings.

Heroism
Old-Woman-Underneath
deity

Old-Woman-Underneath

In the Tlingit Raven cycle, the old woman beneath the earth who tends the post it rests on and controls the tides; when she is hungry the earth shakes, and Raven forces her to let the tide rise and fall.

the post that holds up the earththe tidesearthquakes
Petrel
deity

Petrel

In the Tlingit Raven cycle, the owner of the world's only fresh water, an everlasting spring he guards by sleeping beside it, until Raven tricks him and flies off with the water to make the rivers.

fresh waterthe everlasting spring