Family origin histories : the whaling Indians : West Coast legends and stories part 11 of the Sapir-Thomas Nootka texts
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Family origin histories : the whaling Indians : West Coast legends and stories part 11 of the Sapir-Thomas Nootka texts
(Mercury series = Collection Mercure, ethnology paper ; 145)
Canadian Museum of Civilization, c2009
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. 383
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Nuu-chah-nulth "family histories" are actually tribal histories since their idea of family encompasses the tribe. Eighteen such histories are presented here, chronicling the origins and resources of a number of tribal families. In lieu of written records, these oral traditions stood as Nuu-chah-nulth history and were recited formally in public on ceremonial occasions. Several accounts give long lists of foods. Others describe the acquisition of important technological advances, such as a salmon trap. Half of the texts are short, focusing on a particular item like a mask of a house decoration. One text lists hundreds of Nuu-chah-nulth place names given mythically by Swan Women to the Port Alberni region, which was previously Salish in population and language. Generally, these histories explain how the world came to be and set forth family claims to material and spiritual resources. Each account belonged to the family, which had the exclusive right to tell it publicly. Summary outlines are provided in the introduction.
Qwishanishim told of "The Origin of the Ho?ol?ath" in 1914 at Kildonan by the mouth of Alberni Inlet. He is the outstanding raconteur historian from Ucluelet whose gripping accounts of Nuu-chah-nulth warfare have appeared earlier in Native Accounts of Nootka Ethnography (Sapir and Swadesh 1955: 356-443). Qwishanishim means "The One That Smokes," a nickname from his smoking grass to survive the 1862 smallpox epidemic. Referred to as "an old man" by Alex Thomas in 1914, he may have been born in the 1840s. The precise year of his death is also unknown, but might be around the end of the First World War. He was connected to the T'okw'a: ?ath-Yo: lo?il?ath chiefly line of Tlihwito?a. Jessie Mack and Annie Watts were his daughters.
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