Ladders to Heaven: Northwest Cosmology

By George F. MacDonald

According to the French anthropologist,Claude Levis-Strauss, culture operates through a series of hidden, or covert, equations. The aim of structuralistanthropology and linguistics is to examine the expressions produced by various cultures in order to reveal the paradigms (or master equations) that drive a range of cultural statements including myth, music, house and village structures and art, to name but afew.

The fact that the real meaning of these manifestations are disguised makes them an interesting subject for research. Determining the core themes and expected variations on the equations is the object of analysis. Levi-Strauss is particularly interested in mythological equations. I am interested in visual (or artistic) equations as a window into the meanings of Northwest Coast traditional culture. One such equation that I feel lies at the heart of Northwest Coast culture is the one that explainsthe “economy of souls” through which wealth is expressed. In other words, souls are the ultimate units of wealth. Souls can be stored, invested and exchanged, hence the concept of an “economy of souls”.Equally important is the principal of reciprocity, or a balanced account between man and nature.On the Northwest Coast souls can be “banked” in the form of trophy heads or skulls for future exchanges with supernatural beings who are the ultimate “keepers of souls”. This concept is common among native peoples of the Americas and Northeast Asia.

Among the Yupik and Inuit people of the Artic for example, Sedna is clearly a “keeper of souls”, responsible for the storage and release of all the animals.

It is the Angakok, or shaman,who is the intermediary betweenhumans and Sedna, coaxing herto part with her land and sea creatures when she causes storms and withholds the animals.

Storms are the result of Sedna thrashing her long hair about to free lice that aremanifestations of human sins, such as the breaking of marriage taboos. The shamancombs Sedna’s hair and calms her down, and with it the seas, so that the hunters can go out in their kayaks once more.

In Siberia, among the Nanai, the shaman descends through the smokehole in the house of the Chief of Fishon a fishing line. He steals the fish from tubs under the bed of the sleepingchief as seen in this painting. TheTsimshian tale of Nagunax is a closeparallel to this Siberian tale and isportrayed on a house front paintingnow in the Smithsonian.

Among many North American andNortheast Asian tribes, “masters ofsouls” are frequently portrayed as bears (particularly grizzly bears), oras the wives of bears, such asDzonoqwa. She provides sea creatures to the hunter, but stealshuman children as her compensation.

Among the Nuu-chal-Nulth of Vancouver Island, elaborate shrines were set upin the forest where shaman/whalers exchanged the souls of recently deceasedwhalers or of babies stolen from neighboring villages for more whales to hunt.

The Master of the Whales image is directly portrayed on the whaling gear of Yupikwhalers from the Bering Sea in Alaska.

Among North Coast People, the keepers of souls are seen as sea grizzlies or sea bears. Sea bears are often too sacred to be portrayed realistically, so are portrayedas monsters, made up of a mixture of attributes –such as a bear with fins attached to the arms. Killer whales often accompany them as their “slaves” or helpers.

In order to mask the identity of these supernaturals even more, images of the supernatural keepers of souls are disguised in the coding of Northwest Coastformlines. The grammar of formlines was worked out by Bill Holm 40 years ago, here at the Burke.

Its rules of composition are now well understood, but its “deeper meaning” in Levi-Straussian terms is still elusive.

My own work of the past 40 years has focused on the three language families of thenorthern coast –Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingit. I have examined many thousands ofobjects from the entire coast in collections of several hundred museums around theworld seeking the range and extent of these visual codes, and where possible, theirmythological counterparts.

In fact, my research began withthe archaeology of the Tsimshianarea where the National Museumhas long-standing research ties,including records and archives fromboth staff and contract work overalmost a century. But also becauseit was among this language groupthat the formline style had deeproots and elaborate expression, andwhere archaeological sites that could yield relevant answers were densest.

Consequently, I began my work in the Prince Rupert Harbour, just south of the Alaskanborder.

More than a hundred huge village sites were located in an area where many battlesbetween the Haida and Tlingit were fought for control of the clam beds in the harborand the trade routes that ran through it.

It was at villages like Metlakatla in the Prince Rupert Harbour that the incrediblyelaborate house front and interior screen paintings developed, which eventuallyspread to other tribes.

Only recently have these monumental master worksbeen reconstructed to revealone of the great artisticachievements of mankind.

During my archaeological research in the Kitselas Canyon and the Skeena River, we came across oral traditions that helped to explain the complexity of the soul equationand how many players were involved.

Earlier writers like Franz Boas, George T. Emmons and Marius Barbeau had describedthe Nox-Noxs among the Tsimshian speakers, which were often the inspiration for powerful masks and the other dramatic devices like puppets that were portrayed at theBeginning of the winter feast cycle.

Earlier writers further described that each Nox-Nox was frequently linked to a featureof the landscape, such as a waterfall, a deep pool or lake, a whirlpool, or a sandbarin the river. They controlled the reproduction of all life forms –from animals, birds, and fish, to the humans themselves. By that I mean they released souls from a pool, or stock of souls they kept in their abode to create new life forms of various species.

I had been intrigued by tales I heard as early as 1968 of Nox-Nox in the two milestretch of treacherous waters in the Kitselas Canyon, and by the abundant and elaborate petroglyphs that line the canyon walls. I took Derek Smith with me in 1978to investigate this link.

At first, results were disappointing, and it was only after he had taken one of theelders on a trip to Prince Rupert, 125 miles from the canyon, that the elder openedup and told the fascinating account of eleven different Nox-Nox who inhabited thevarious whirlpools and eddies of the canyon.

Of course, the Nox-Noxs also controlled the lives of the people that passed throughthe canyon in their canoes. Those that did not show proper respect, or offer small giftsof food to the Nox-Nox, had their canoes capsized and they were drowned. Children were warned not to speak during these traverses of the canyon, and especially not tolaugh, as that upset the Nox-Noxs most of all.

If Nox-Nox were appropriately honored, they bestowed riches on the families in terms of good fishing and hunting, and with abundant progeny.

Family histories, called Adaox (whichliterally translates as “the true witnessedhistory of the family”), were recounted tolaunch the winter feasting season. Theywere also recited to validate the succession of chiefs, who would take onnew names at various points during theirlifetime.

Names were also strictly allocated bythe supernaturals, but one person wouldhave a series of names to mark theirprogress in the recapitulation of thecharter, or founding myth.

Display of the visual records of these honors accompanied the recitation of the charter myths. They were represented in the devices carved on totem poles, painted on family boxes and utensils, and in the most elaborate display of all, the huge painted screens that were displayed temporarily at these ritual occasions.

Tsimshian speaking people referred to the totem poles and monumental paintings as their “deeds” to parcels of land and fishing localities that were acknowledged duringthe winter feasts as belonging to their chiefs and families. Examining one example ofeach will illustrate my thesis.

1. The Dog Salmon pole of Kitwanga

2. The Nagunaks screen of Lax’walaams (Ft. Simpson)

3. Tlingit screens of bears

How did the Haida fit in with this picture?

John R. Swanton describes the Haida supernaturals of the ocean and the streams in great detail. Underwater villages that were ruled by killer whale chiefs ringed the islands in tandem with human villages. Like humans, the Killer Whale chiefs were divided into Raven and Eagle moieties. The raven killer whales had all black dorsal fins, while the eagle branch had a white bar diagonally across their dorsal fin.

When Killer Whale chiefs were traveling at sea, they could appear either as a canoefull of people or as a large killer whale. The Haida reveal more about the concept of souls in their view that at death, a journey begins along the Milky Way.

The first stop is at the house of the Master Gambler.

In the game that ensues, if the deceased person wins, there are more salmon caught in his village. If Master Gamblerwins, more people die in his village.

The exchange of fish for human souls is made very clear in thistext.

In another Haida story of the Lazy son-in-law, a young man who sleeps late eachmorning is banished to a lake behind Skidegate village. He splits a tree to make atrap for a supernatural being that lives in the lake and baits it with a baby he stealsfrom another village. After he has caught the Wasgo (Sea Wolf) he dons its skinand catches whales which he deposits each morning at the door of his mother-in-law. She thinks she is a powerful shaman who attracts whales on her own, but diesof shame when all is revealed.

The Haida also believe that there is a tall pole that stands at the center of HaidaGwaii to the top of which strings run from all corners of the islands. When thesestrings are pulled fish fall from heaven into the rivers, thus renewing the runs. There may indeed be a link between this concept and the name of the Rainwallscreen in the Whale House at Klukwan village in Alaska. Here, Raven isportrayed with salmon and human heads filling every space within the form lines of the figure.

What may be implied is that the supernatural figure of Raven contains the entirefish run within its body.

Masks that disgorge fish runs from their mouths are found among the Nuu-Chal-Nulth and Salish (Swaihwe mask). Again, in Siberia, metal images worn by the shaman portray dragon like creatures, symbolizing rivers, with their bellies fullof salmon.

Levis-Strauss has written about the supernatural serpent, called Lik, among the Peruvian Indians who could swallow or disgorge entire runs of fish.

Links between salmon and humans are clear in the oral tradition of the Nishga of the Nass River in northern British Columbia. They believe that a person’s soul journeys to a narrow upper world that parallels the course of the Nass River where they become ghost people. As more deceased arrive they eventually push their predecessors off the opposite side into the river where they become young salmon. Their flesh nourishes humans, and when their bones are burned in the fire, their souls are released for reincarnation in humans, completing the cycle. The Tsimshian and other north coast tribes have various sets of observations to identify whose soul, and hence whose “name” has been supplied to a newborn child.

If we look once again atthe elaborate house front painting of the Tsimshian, we can draw quite a dif-ferent interpretation from the design. At the center is the Master of Souls. Surrounding him are the rafters of the house indi-cated by black lines, whichsupport small figures rep-resenting the souls of those awaiting reincarnation.

In conclusion, other examples oflinks between souls of humans andsalmon can be found throughout Northwest Coast culture, particularlyin the First Salmon Ceremonies aspracticed from Alaska to California.

As Erna Gunther, a former directorof this museum pointed out in apublication half a century ago, theprototype for the First Salmon Ceremony was clearly the BearFeast Ceremony as recorded amongthe Ainu and mainland tribes of eastern Siberia and beyond.

The ancient origins of the BearFeast Ceremony can be tracedto the Baldwin Phase (2500-3500 BP) in the Frazer Canyonsequence.

My concluding observation is that ample evidence exists in the art and mythologyof the peoples of the Northwest Coast to reconstruct much of their cosmology, whichhelps to explain many distinctive aspects of their belief system, as well as some of the meaning implicit in their rituals and art forms. This has particular relevance to ourlecture series for the Reverent Remembrance exhibit in providing insight into the death and rebirth themes and the reincarnation of souls, both as human infants andas fish and game, as depicted in the art of the Northwest Coast.