Pacific Northwest Coast

SHAMANS

Shaman’s roles

• Ability to communicate mystically and directly with world of spirits

• Assured general welfare of community

• Highly respected member of community, but may live outside its usual rules

• Cured sick

• Combated witches

• Assure success in battle, fishing, hunting, etc.

• Considered most powerful and important in the North NWC (Tlingit, then Tsimshian, then Haida..)

“In olden times, there were in this country a

great many shamans who were like

supernatural beings among the people,

and who, through their magic worked

wonders among them. Everybody was

afraid of their supernatural powers. They

would help those who paid much, and kill

those who were against them.”– Ethnographer Franz Boas

Northern shaman outside normal rules:

• Never cut hair or nails or combed hair

• Often lived apart from village (Tlingit)

• Shaman’s regalia potent & dangerous to others

• Shaman’s artwork is personal property,

normally depicting spirit helpers, not crests

-Art often asymmetrical

Shaman selected

• By spirits during puberty

• Usually informed through serious illness,

coma, or dream

Yek

• Shaman’s spirit helpers, usually 8

• Acquired on first vision quest, usually 8 days

• Tongues of spirit helpers given to the shaman kept in special medicine bags (tongues as source of spiritual wisdom; referring to power over life and death)

• On shaman’s artwork; shaman often shown in artwork transforming from human into spirit helper’s form

Navy Lt. George Emmons, collector,

1882-1887, on Tlingit shaman:

• “…movements so wild…head thrown back,

half closed glazed eyes… shadows…

confusion of sounds…..the tense

expectancy of the crowded spaces kept

alive the belief in the unknown and this

juggler of life.”

Art used in the Curing Process:

• Shake rattles, beat drums

• Touch charms (amulets) to patient’s body, sometimes leave with the patient

• Use soulcatchers to catch spirit, draw out illness

• Don series of masks depicting yek, transforming self into different yek, revalidating claims to spiritual knowledge

Northern NWC Shamanic Art

Masks, rattles, amulets, crowns, dance aprons, grave figures, grave houses…

Specialties:

• Tlingit – masks, oystercatcher rattles, grave figures with devilfish, Chilkat caps

• Tsimshian – soulcatchers and Raven rattles, bear fang crowns

• Haida – grave houses

Tlingit shaman’s cap:

Chilkat material with image of land otter;

also real wolf’s tail, Wolf head eating human…

Tlingit shaman’s hat woven of human hair.

Depicting powerful chief/shaman flanked by grave guardians

Shaman’s moosehide apron with amulets and deer dew claws

Talking stick

Shaman’s crowns:

Made of carved bear claws

(or mountain goat horns or

wood carved and shaped

that way)

Often carved with images

Of the shaman’s yek

Soulcatchers

• Made only by Tsimshian but used by other

northern tribes

• Used to recover lost souls and return them

to patient, or suck out disease/evil from

the patient

• Often Sisiutl

(Ivory) Amulets

Often depict images seen in dreams or trances

Often depict metamorphosis

Killer whale eating humanoid Raven tailBear face

Raven eating human

Octopus (devilfish)

Ducks biting witches

Bear Owl

Eagle

Land Otter

Raven eating human

Shaman’s club

Sea monster and its baby

Haida shaman

transforming

Shaman’s masks

• Ideally 8 for 8 spirit helpers, plus humans

• Could use to transform into spirit helpers,

cross over plane of existence to world of

the dead, exert power over all aspects of

life & death

Tongue sticking out often refers to transforming or dying state

Shaman transforming into land otter,

most powerful spirit; was human, drowned,

went to land otter village under sea,

became land otter and lured others to their

death by drowning; only shaman can control

Land Otter Man: lost man becoming otter

Note : Otter revenged the loss (almost to extinction) of other otters by abducting humans

Land otter eyebrows. Shaman transforming into bear.

Devilfish (octopus)

-extremely potent and potentially

dangerous spirit helper (only

shaman and Kumugwe, Chief of

the Sea, could control them)

-had many mysterious abilities

(ink, camouflage, use of its

“hands” and even use of tools)

and had 8 legs

Shaman transforming into eagle

devilfish

Open-mouthed, dead

slave;

Human hair as train

Transforming into Raven; made of whale vertebrate

Wolf brows

Mice

Mice eat “the secrets of the spirits and witches which they give to the shaman”.

-Emmons 1882-7

Land otters

Transforming

Into Bear

Bear cub

frogs

Land otter

frog

mountain

goats

Blue jay wings,

Swansdown,

Eagle feathers,

Bear fur..

Raven Rattles

• Originated with Tsimshian, used by all

tribes

• Depict Raven stealing Sun, Moon, and

Stars and/or Shaman riding on Raven

while receiving spiritual power from a yek

kingfisher

Raven rattles

in hands

(heads upside-down)

Touching tongues of shaman and spirit helper show spiritual connection,

the sharing of wisdom from the spirit helper to the shaman.

Oystercatcher Rattles

• Primarily Tlingit

• Made with beak of real oystercatcher; peculiar bird

• Shaman usually riding on the back torturing witches (often by tying their hands and pulling their hair)

• Witch’s spirit helper often emerges from his/her chest while the shaman’s spirit helpers assist

Shaman twisting witch’s hair in small-scale sculpture

Witch bound, 1882

Mountain goat yek holds evil witches in check

Tsimshian

Shaman grave houses and

grave figures

• Shaman not cremated like others;

necessary to bury him and his regalia far

from the village because he remained

highly potent and dangerous

• Often buried in elevated grave houses and

guarded by grave figures

Spine/Land otter

with

devilfish suckers

Wearing

spirit fish cloak

Originally holding

rattles

Originally riding on the back of a seal, showing his ability to travel as silently as a seal

Tlingit shaman’s hat woven of human hair.

Depicting powerful chief/shaman flanked by grave guardians

Coast Salish

shaman with

fisher guardian

spirit