The Whale House of the Chilkat

by George Thornton Emmons

Of the five totemic families that form the Chilkat-kwan, not including a sixth subdivision, four are resident here, while individuals of the others through intermarriage are scattered through the village but without house standing. The traditions of all of these speak of a migration from the southern border northward through the inland channels.

The Wolf phratry is represented by three families: the Kágwantān, Tuck-este-nar, and Duck-clar-way-di. The first two are closely related and claim to be offshoots of a parent stock and to have migrated north from the coast between the mouths of the Nass and the Skeena rivers and in earlier times they lived inland on these rivers. The last-named is unquestionably of interior origin and it is possible that all three are of like ancestry.

The sole representative of the Raven party is the Kon-nuh-ta-di with which this paper deals. Their legendary history, so imaginary and interesting, is closely associated with the wanderings and antics of "Yehlh," the Raven creator, while the earliest family traditions are centered about the south and west coast of the Prince of Wales and contiguous islands. There is a hazy belief in the minds of the older people, handed down through generations, that in the earliest days there came to these shores from seaward, a people of unknown origin who landed and lived on Dall Island, and later spread along the southern coast of Prince of Wales Island. The descendants of one of the two original women, represented as sisters, later crossed Dixon Entrance and peopled the Queen Charlotte Islands, founding the Haida, while those who remained, uniting with migratory bands from the Interior were the progenitors of the Tlingit.

The three principal families forming the Tanta-kwan that lived thereabouts in the eighteenth century, until expelled by the Haida invasion from Masset, and then crossed over to the mainland where they are still found, are the Ta-qway-di, Kik-sat-di, and Kon-nuh-hut-di, all of which have formed factors of great importance in peopling the coast of Alaska as far north as Comptroller Bay, and are still represented in all of the more important Tlingit tribes. The tribal name Tanta, was taken from their country, the Prince of Wales Island, Tan, "Sealion" so named from the abundance of this animal on the seaward coast. The Kon-nuh-hut-di are said to have removed, at some early day, to Port Stewart within the mainland entrance of Beam Canal, which they called "Con-nuh," (safe, sheltered) and from which they derived their family name (people of, or belonging to, Con-huh), but finding the climate more severe than that of the islands, and with no compensating advantages of food, they returned to their former home. A slight variation of the name Kon-nuh-ta-di which is not accounted for, distinguishes the Chilkat and more northern branches of the family from the Tanta and Taku. Another name seldom used, but very pretentious and tribal in character, is Shuck-ka-kwan "highest or first-man tribe" or Shuck-ka-kon-nuh-ta-di, claiming superiority through a relationship with Yehlh, in reference to his struggle with Gun-nook, the supernatural keeper of fresh water, when in his efforts to escape through the smoke hole of the house with what he had stolen he was caught and held fast until he was smoked black.

At a very early period they must have lived on the central west coast of Prince of Wales Island, near Klawak, in a village or country called Tuck-anee "outside town" where the people were known locally as Tuckanadi "outside town people" as the scene of one of their principal hero tales is laid hereabouts (the struggle of Duck-toolh with the sealions) which it is claimed was the cause of one of the northward migrations of a body of the family. It was certainly after this happening, and possibly connected with it, that a considerable party separated and traveled north through the inland channels to the head of tidewater, and then up the Chilkat River until they reached the site of Kluckwan where they finally settled and have ever since remained. This movement must date back many years, for the Russian Pilot Ismaïlof, as previously noted, in visiting Yakutat in 1888 met "a chief Ilk-hak with a large force of one hundred warriors who had journeyed up the coast from their winter home on the Chilkat River to trade."

Ilk-hak or Yehlh-kok "Raven fragrance or smell" is an hereditary name belonging strictly to the Kon-nuh-ta-di family (and as a coincidence it happens to be that of the present chief to whom I am indebted for certain information herein contained), and to have extended their commercial activities to such a distance and with such a numerous retinue would bespeak a considerable age and settled state in their new home.

Other migrations northward are known to have occurred at later periods; One party following the outside coast settled in a bay above Cape Spencer where much glacial ice collected and they took the name Tih-ka-di (people of or belonging to the icebergs) but of these none remain.

Another body, taking a more easterly course among the islands, stopped at Chyeek on the Chatham Straits shore of Admiralty Island with the Hootz-ah-tar-kwan, but trouble with the Dasheton clan arose over a woman and they removed in a body to Stevens Passage and joined the Taku-kwan of which they form an integral part today under the original name Kon-nuh-hut-di.

In the latter portion of the eighteenth century, the Tanta-kwan including this family, was driven out of the southern portion of the Prince of Wales Island by the Haida and crossing Clarence Straits settled on Annette and adjacent islands. Their principal village was Tark-an-ee (winter town) at Port Chester where New Metlakatla now stands, and was a very large settlement, a totem pole village, as the decayed remains showed thirty years ago. In war with the Stickheen, this village was destroyed and also a later one across the island, Chake-an-ee (Thimble berry town) at Port Tamgass, when they crossed to Cat Island and then to the mainland and made a last stand at Tongass where they remained until the founding of Saxman and Ketchikan.

None of this family is found today on Prince of Wales Island, their original home. The principal branch lives at Chilkat where they have always been accorded the highest place with the Ka-gwan-tan, with whom they have so intermarried through generations, that it often happens that the chiefs of each family are father and son.