Tlingit and Haida TraditionAncestress of the Eagle Clans
Djilaqons
Jiila Kuns(Jiila Kuns (modern spelling); Djila'qons in Swanton's 1905 orthography)
Also known as Jiila Kuns, Djila'qons
- ancestry of the Eagle clans
- the Eagle moiety
In Haida tradition, the ancestress of the Eagle clans, regarded as the special patroness of everyone of the Eagle side of Haida society.
About Djilaqons
Two sides of society
Haida society is divided into two halves, or moieties, Raven and Eagle, and a person belongs to the side of their mother. Marriage traditionally takes place across the two sides, so every family joins them. Each side is made up of many matrilineal clans with their own names, histories, crests, and territories. Tlingit society is divided in a similar way, into Raven and Eagle (or Wolf) moieties.
The ancestress
In the Skidegate texts John R. Swanton recorded in 1900 and 1901, Djila'qons appears as the ancestress of one Eagle lineage and is described as the ancestress or special patroness of all those of the Eagle clans. Her stories are therefore not only myths but lineage histories, and parts of them belong to the clans that descend from her.
Restraint
Crests and the fuller stories that support them are the property of particular clans. This entry records only what Swanton published and does not attempt to reconstruct any clan's own account.
Worship and cult
Temples, festivals, and practices recorded for Djilaqons
Crests and lineage histories connected with her belong to the Eagle clans; this site describes no ceremony.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- John R. Swanton, Haida Texts and Myths, Skidegate Dialect (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 29)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Parallels are editorial comparisons across traditions: a shared role does not, by itself, establish a shared origin.