Tlingit and Haida Traditionorigin
Naatsilanéi Carves the Killer Whales
A carver of the Tsague'dî tries wood after wood until killer whales carved from yellow cedar come alive, and sends them into the sea to hunt, forbidding them ever to harm a human being.
An editorial retelling
The story
A clan origin
This story explains the origin of the killer whale and why one Tlingit clan uses it as a crest. It follows the short version John R. Swanton published in 1909 as 'Origin of the Killer Whale', and notes where widely retold versions add more.
The failed carvings
Naatsilanéi, of the Tsague'dî, a branch of the DAqL!awe'dî, set out to make killer whales. He carved them first from red cedar, but when he put them in the water they only floated. He tried hemlock, and then other woods, and each time the carvings lay on the surface like driftwood.
Yellow cedar
Then he carved them from yellow cedar. When he put these in the water, they came alive and swam. He made them in several kinds, marking one with white paint so that it became the white-mouthed killer whale, and he named the long, slender red one that swims at the front 'killer-whale-spear'.
The instruction
He told the whales that when they went up to the heads of the bays they were to hunt for seal, halibut, and everything else under the sea, but that they were never to hurt a human being. Because the Tsague'dî are a branch of the DAqL!awe'dî, Swanton records, the DAqL!awe'dî alone use the killer whale as their emblem.
Other tellings
Many later tellings frame the carving with a story of betrayal: jealous brothers-in-law abandon Naatsilanéi on a distant sea rock, the sea lions rescue him, and his first command to the new whales is to overturn the brothers-in-law's canoe, before he forbids them ever to harm people again. Those episodes come from those other tellings, not from Swanton's text.
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Highlights
Carvings of red cedar and hemlock only float; carved from yellow cedar, the killer whales come alive, and he tells them never to hurt a human being.
Why it matters
The Tlingit origin of the killer whale and of its use as a clan crest, and an expression of the Northwest Coast understanding of carving as a way of bringing beings into the world.
Sources and further reading
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.
Works cited
Tlingit Myths and Texts, story 4, "Origin of the Killer Whale"
John R. Swanton