Fights between the Tsimshian and Haida and among the northern Haida
[Told by Richard of the Middle-gîtî′ns.]
The Skidegate people went once to trade at Port Simpson[1] in sixty canoes. The Pebble-town people[2] also went there. And they traded with dry halibut. They lived outside. There a Tsimshian, who was with a white man, came to them. Sticks were given around to them (the Haida). And afterward he took the sticks back again. They planned to destroy them during the winter. That was why they counted them.
A woman of the Gîtî′ns’-servants[3] named Bufflehead[4] sold dry halibut to the wife of Lgiäx.[5] She said it was too small and she wanted to exchange it for more. Bufflehead then refused to give her more in exchange. And they threw the dry halibut at Bufflehead. She then threw the dry halibut in the face of Lgiäx’s daughter, and she went home crying.
Some one shouted, and I went out. They were throwing stones at each other. They gave each other a thorough stoning. By and by they stopped. And some time afterward a gun went off. Some one shouted: “They killed so-and-so.” Some time after that another gun went off. Another was shot. Then it stopped for a while. When evening came they began to shoot at us. All through the night they shot at the Skidegate people. During all that time they shouted out [the name of the person shot]. I was then without a gun, and I borrowed one. I held it and two cartridge boxes. They shot at the sail houses on the beach in which we lived. There was nothing behind which we could shelter ourselves. Then I dug a hole for myself in the sand and lay in it.
I then shot at some one who lay behind a log and was shooting, back from the sea. I shot off his hat. When I shot at him again I shot his gun away from him. He then ran away.
A hill lay behind us, from which they were shooting at us. I also began to shoot at those. They also ran away. After they had shot at us for five nights they stopped for a while.
Then the Tsimshian came to dance. They wanted to make peace because we had killed Lgiäx’s nephew. We also enslaved two women who were walking seaward from the town. By and by they started to dance. We then gave them some property. After this had gone on for a while they made the following arrangements. They said that [[385]]we might go with them to Laqꜝalā′m. And we said that we would give them more property. We thought then that it was all right, and we went to our canoes. While a part of the provisions lay on shore the Tsimshian took the provisions. We then got into our canoes. I pushed my canoe off with the many which were there. When the canoes got away two remained. I then ran toward the fort at Port Simpson.[6] There was yet a crowd of Skidegate people there. And, while I stood there, two canoes with the dancers[7] in them were still there. Then the Tsimshian pursued. They shot into the canoes, pulled themselves close alongside, and in a short time they drifted along empty. Then, when the two that were there started off, I ran down from in front of Port Simpson house. I jumped into the stern. Then the two dancers[7] [in their canoes] paddled backward. I took a gun and shot them both. At that time I scared them. Those who first went off took their property. A south wind was blowing. Canoes drifted off empty.
They then shot much at us from Laqꜝalā′m. There was no gun in my canoe. After that they again shot at us. We then fled. During all that time the Tsimshian pursued us. That was a great disaster, though the story of it sounds well enough. They pursued us far out to sea. I was in my wife’s canoe.
When they got far out at sea they returned. They enslaved very many of the Skidegate people.
Then they (the Skidegate people) landed at ʟꜝg̣a′odana-i.[8] At that time a heavy rain set in. They called it “The-rain-upon-the-skins-of-dead-bodies.” And, when daylight came, I built a big fire. Then the wounded sat around the fire. On the following day, when we started off, a man of Those-born-at-House-point[9] was angry, because, he said, we went off first. Then he and I were going to shoot each other. They held us apart. And they went away.
And on the next day they stood crying in front of ʟꜝg̣a′odana-i. The Pebble-town people did not cry, however, because all of them escaped. Fifty canoe loads were destroyed. The weather was bad. And, while they lay there, the one who had quarreled with me came to me and pulled up his canoe alongside of ours. He then made peace with me. He gave me whisky. And, after we had sent food through the fire to those who had been unable to escape, we spent the night in our canoes. We remained awake. We were afraid. We thought that they might pursue us again.
And when day broke we went away. About noon they sailed over to Skidegate. They laid the blame on Bufflehead, who had escaped. They then asked her for property. Her husband was named Lū′g̣ot.[10] Then they began to give away property. He was about to make a potlatch. His house pole lay there for good. He gave the town all of his property. [[386]]
Some time afterward Gudiqā′yiñao’s father came back. They had been unable to get away from Port Simpson house, whence they came. Before he could ask for blood money the Gîtî′ns’-servants came there, with paddles on their shoulders. They said that they had come to go to war for him.
Some time afterward a great many Masset people went to trade. They came to the Gyînxᴀngī′g[11] family. They say that there were sixty canoes. After they had been there for a while they started off. And, after they had traded, a Tsimshian shot at the canoes. The bullet then struck the canoe of a man of the Point-town family[12] named X̣ᴀ′na.
His son then seized a gun and shot into a crowd standing on shore. And he shot one down. They at once shot after them. They immediately started off. The Tsimshian chased them. They made them upset by shooting. They also destroyed them. They took them also for slaves. They also enslaved many of the Rotten-house people.[13]
At that time they destroyed a canoe at Laxanē′st[14] out of which two men and a woman escaped. Many nights afterward, when some persons came there for wood, they got away in their canoes. And in them they came across. They were saved.
Those in Port Simpson house who could not escape were afterward presented with a canoe by the Iron people,[15] who let them escape. Those also got home. Then, too, it was not a good time.
Gîtqōna′-i’s father went to Masset, and five families[16] banded together and began to drink sea water. During the whole time they practiced how they would fight. A cartridge box then caught fire, and a man was burned.
After they had drunk sea water for six nights they set out to war in ten canoes. And, when they reached the mainland, some stopped at Qꜝadō′.[17] After they had looked for enemies on the opposite side as well, [they saw] two canoes go out from Siwā′łins[18] after salmon.
They then quickly pulled toward them. They shot the man in the stern, so that he fell over into the water, after which they closed with the canoes. When they ran into them to fight they upset them. They then even struck them in the sea. Gî′tg̣ax̣ī′lîña killed three people at that time. The Tsimshian had killed his wife, of whom he was very fond. Four persons were in the canoe. They also destroyed two canoe loads which were farther off.
After they had watched for a while longer [they saw] three more canoes sailing along. They killed all the people in those. They took the heads of them all. After they had watched for some time longer two canoes came with sockeyes. They went out also to those people and killed them. On that day they destroyed seven canoes. On that day they killed twenty-eight people. They enslaved one brave man of the Tsimshian. [[387]]
The Masset people were then happy. They went off singing songs of victory. And they came to Masset singing songs of victory, for they had made accounts even. But the Skidegate people did not come out even.
But Gî′tg̣ax̣ī′lîña’s canoe was unfinished. When he had finished it he brought over to his brothers-in-law at Gᴀsa′n[19] the news that their sister had been killed. His brothers-in-law belonged to the Sand-town people.[20] When he came they, too, raised their canoes. He also went with them. The Sand-town people went in four canoes.
They then began to watch Tcꜝidᴀlqꜝeda′-i.[21] After they had watched for a while four Tsimshian canoes came there. They then shot at them. They made them upset, and they enslaved six women. They killed many men. There Gî′tg̣ax̣ī′lîña got some slaves. He gave them to his brothers-in-law. Afterward they went home happy. They sang songs of victory as they came to Gᴀsa′n.
Three days later news came to Gᴀsa′n that one of the Yä′dᴀs[22] had been killed at Howkan.[23] The Yä′dᴀs then went to Howkan to fight, and killed six people there. And afterward the Town-of-Tcꜝā′ał people also went to fight at Gᴀsa′n. There they also killed many of the Yä′dᴀs. They then began to war upon each other. In all that time many were killed on both sides.
Some time afterward some of the Town-of-Tcꜝā′ał[24] people went to visit one of their friends who had married in Masset. After they had stayed there for a while and were on the way home many of them upset. A chief named Voice-at-evening was drowned. In the winter his nephews went for his grave post. When it was almost finished the Yä′dᴀs came there to fight and killed five of the Town-of-Tcꜝā′ał people. The grave post lay there for good.
They at once began fighting again. Wherever they met they killed one another. They killed each other during many years. They did not make peace with one another. Some are still bad to one another.
Some time afterward news came that one of the Sqoā′ładas[25] had killed one of the Cod-people[26] at Kꜝiū′stᴀ.[27] He was a great chief. He had a house hole at Tꜝī′g̣ᴀn.[28] His nephews then killed a shaman, Tcꜝā′nūt, belonging to the Sa′gua-lā′nas.[29] They shot ten bullets into him. He was town chief. He owned the town of Qᴀñ. After they had shot him and had walked around him for a while one of his bunches of matted hair, which was lying on the ground, rose up and lay over his head. It went on in that way until all came to lie over his head.
When the Sqoā′ładas on the west coast heard that they had killed Gîtkū′[30] they also went to war. They killed many of the Cod-people. They also enslaved one of them.
After that one of the Sg̣adjī′gua-ał-lā′nas[31] in Masset, named Kiłtcꜝāñ, invited the people. And he had a dance. He pulled out ten slaves that he owned in a string [holding each other’s hands]. After [[388]]they had taken home food one of the Middle-gîtî′ns[32] named Łnē′kꜝî, shot one of the Cod-people in the arm from between the houses. Upon this his two younger brothers acted as if they were drunk. They killed there a chief, Gā′la. He belonged to the Ya′gun-gîtîna′-i.[33] He did not die at once. He died afterward. His entire family shot at once at the house of the Cod-people. They killed two persons.
For ten days and nights they fought in the town. No one had a fire. No one had water. When the chiefs’ wives, thinking that they would not touch them, went for water the Ya′gun-gîtîna′-i smashed their buckets with stones, and they returned. At the end of ten days the Ya′gun-gîtîna′-i suggested making peace. They then stopped shooting at the house.
By and by an old man, their uncle, came behind the town singing catastrophe songs. He belonged to the Cod-people. After he had sung for a while he made a good speech: “Chiefs, my brothers-in-law, the war trail and the feather trail came out together at Na-i î′ndjawa in the middle of the town. I went up by the war trail. I came out upon the feather trail. ‘What town is this? What town is this?’ ‘Chief, my son, this is the town of Gā′la, your father. You started up on the war trail which comes out in the middle of your father’s town. Your fathers were troubled[34] about you. You came out upon the feather trail.’” He also spake so: “Is it my father’s town? Is it indeed my father’s town? [I thought it was] some other.”[35]
They then started to dance. After they had been for two days in the woods, they were called toward the house. They came then and stood in a line in front of the house. They had their guns ready. Presently the Ya′gun-gîtîna′-i stood in lines opposite. They struck each other with their guns. They struck each other with their knives.
By and by the Cod-people picked up two chiefs [of the Ya′gun-gîtîna′-i].[36] There was a great crowd of people. They picked them up and laid them upon a bed of feathers in the rear part of the house. Then two slaves were tendered as blood money to Those-born-at-Ya′gun.[37] And they refused them. They afterward tendered them two more. Those they refused also.
Then Tcꜝā′nut said: “Do I ask four slaves of you? My uncle is worth ten slaves and four hundred blankets. I will not dance.” There were many in the house. They did not pay any attention to the bad words that he gave them.[38]
By and by the Middle-gîtî′ns began rapping on the front of the house. They presently went in and got the dancers. They took them up. They then brought them into the house of the Middle-gîtî′ns because they had started the trouble.[39] They brought these in [to give to them property]. They (the Middle-gîtî′ns) gave them the four slaves. They also gave them a great quantity of property. They (the Ya′gun-gîtîna′-i) began to dance in the house at once. [[389]]
At that time the Gîtî′ns[40] also gave property to them. It reached beyond their expectations. After they had danced for four nights the Cod-people came and got them. They also gave them six slaves as blood money. And they washed their faces and began to dance. Then the Skîtg̣a′oqao,[41] Middle-gîtî′ns, and Cod-people gave them more property. They gave them seven hundred blankets.
Then Tcꜝā′nut married his uncle’s wife, and they made him take his uncle’s place. And, when he kept staying away from his wife, the Middle-gîtî′ns talked roughly to him. After they had spoken to him for a while they told him to leave the house.
But on the next day his wife had him call in his friends. He called in all of the Eagles. After he had given them all kinds of food, and evening was come, they left him. On the next day he called in the Ravens. After he had fed them for a while it was evening, and they went home. On the day after that he again called in the Eagles. After those had gone home he again called in the Ravens. When eighty boxes of grease and berries had been used up he invited the Eagles to ten more, and they assigned while in the house the work on his uncle’s grave post.[42]
They went to get it. After they had been four days away they came home. My father carved the grave post at once. It was finished. He then raised it, and the potlatch was over. He gave away four hundred blankets, and slaves with them. They gave my father slaves and twenty blankets for carving the grave post.
After that Tcꜝā′nut quarreled with his younger brother. He asked him then why he had not evened accounts at the time when they killed his uncle. And his younger brother made him ashamed. On that night he shot one of the Cod-people through the smoke hole. Again they shot each other. After two days had passed they stopped fighting. And they gave a lot of property for [the one killed]. They made them feel good then. [[391]]
[1] The word used here, Laqꜝalā′m, is properly applied to the tongue of land running out to the modern Indian town. [↑]
[2] Meaning the people of all the families of Tcꜝā′ał. [↑]
[3] See “[Story of the Food-giving-town people],” note [27]. [↑]
[4] The Buffel duck (Charitonetta albeola, Linnæus). [↑]
[5] The head chief at Port Simpson. [↑]
[6] The Hudson Bay Company’s stockaded inclosure. [↑]
[7] Those who had come to procure blood compensation for Lgiäx’s nephew. ↑ [a] [b]
[8] The last camping place before heading for the Queen Charlotte islands. [↑]
[9] See “[Story of the House-point families],” [notes]. [↑]
[10] This was one of the names of the chief of the Seaward-sqoā′ładas. [↑]
[11] Given by Professor Boas, from Tsimshian sources, as Gyina angyī′ek, “people of the mosquito place.” [↑]
[12] See “[Story of the Food-giving-town people],” note [5]. [↑]
[13] One of the subdivisions of the Gîtî′ns of Skidegate. So called from a house that they once owned which the chief did not have property enough to replace until it rotted very badly. There were several of these people at Masset. [↑]
[14] A long island south of Port Simpson. [↑]
[15] That is, the white people. [↑]
[16] These were the Skîtg̣a′oqao, the Middle-gîtî′ns, the Gîtî′ns of Ya′gun river, the Inlet-rear-town people (G̣ao-sʟꜝan-lnaga′-i), and the Point-town people. [↑]
[17] In Metlakahtla harbor. [↑]
[18] A creek into which very many sockeye salmon run. [↑]
[19] Written by the whites Kasaan, the northernmost Haida town, situate on the east coast of Prince of Wales island. [↑]
[20] See “[Story of the Food-giving-town people],” note [4]. [↑]
[21] A narrow passage near the entrance of Nass inlet. [↑]
[22] An important subdivision of the Stᴀ′stas family living at this time mainly at Gᴀsa′n. [↑]
[23] The largest Haida town in Alaska, owned by the Town-of-Tcꜝā′ał people. [↑]
[24] See the [preceding story], note [2]. [↑]
[25] A Raven family of considerable importance which formerly lived between Rennell sound and Hippa island. They afterward moved to Tcꜝā′ał, and from there into Skidegate. [↑]
[26] A Raven family at Masset. Formerly they lived near Hippa island. [↑]
[27] One of the chief Haida towns in ancient times. It stood on the north coast of Graham island, opposite North island, and was owned by the Stᴀ′stas, an Eagle family of great importance. The name is thought to signify “where the trail comes out.” [↑]
[28] The principal town on the west coast of Graham island. It stood just south of Port Lewis and was owned by the West-coast-rear-town people. The name is thought to mean “slaughter village.” [↑]
[29] An Eagle family that is supposed to be a branch of the Tcēts-gîtᴀna′-i. Their town was, as stated, Qᴀñ, which has a beautiful situation and a fine harbor just inside the mouth of Naden harbor. [↑]
[30] The circumstances of his death are not related. [↑]
[31] See the story of “[A raid on the Tlingit],” note [14]. [↑]
[32] See the notes to the above story. [↑]
[33] The Masset people did not mention any family under this name, but the Sagui′gîtᴀna′-i (Up-inlet-gîtî′ns) are probably intended. They once had a town at the mouth of Yagun river. [↑]
[34] More often “are troubled about” is expressed by the word gutxîsg̣alᴀ′ñg̣an, different from that used here, which is ñaigu′lgᴀn. [↑]
[35] The speaker affects not to have known that the town in which he has been fighting is that belonging to his father’s people. He goes up into the forest by the war trail—that is, fighting—and comes out upon the feather trail—that is, in peace. [↑]
[36] When peace was made one man from each side was generally taken up and borne around upon the shoulders of his opponents. He was called the “deer.” The order seems to have been somewhat different in this case, two men being taken from only one side. It was evidently considered that only that family had a grievance. [↑]
[37] A synonym for Ya′gun-gîtᴀna′-i. [↑]
[38] The bargaining is broken off at this point by the coming of the Middle-gîtî′ns, and is resumed later when the Cod-people gave six slaves. [↑]
[39] It will be remembered that the trouble was started by a man of the Middle-gîtî′ns shooting one of the Cod-people in the arm. [↑]
[40] The Gîtî′ns of Masset, as the name might imply, seems to have been the largest Eagle family. There were two principal divisions of this—the Mamᴀn-river-gîtî′ns and the River-Sqadjî′ns-gîtî′ns, named from streams flowing into the head of Masset inlet, on which they camped. [↑]
[41] Or Eggs-of-Skî′tg̣ao. This was the leading Raven family in Masset, and formerly they owned that town. [↑]
[42] He and his friends, the Eagles, assigned work to the opposite clan, the Ravens. A man’s opposites always took care of his funeral. [↑]