Tlingit Deities and Shamans
Thus Yehl is said to be the creator of all beings and things, yet we have not forgotten how Khanukh wrung from the unwilling lips of him the confession, Thou…
From: Unknown To: 1874 C.E.
Location: Alexander Archipelago, Alaska
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Native Races of the Pacific States by Hubert Howe Bancroft, 1874.
The Thlinkeets are said not to believe in any supreme being. They have that Yehl, the Raven, and that Khanukh, the Wolf, whom we are already to some extent acquainted with; but neither the exact rank and character of these in the supernatural world, nor even their comparative rank, can be established above contradiction.
Thus Yehl is said to be the creator of all beings and things, yet we have not forgotten how Khanukh wrung from the unwilling lips of him the confession, Thou art older than I. It is again said of Yehl that his power is unlimited; but alas! we have seen him helpless in the magic darkness raised by Khanukh, and howling as a frightened child might do in a gloomy corridor.
The nature of Yehl is kind, and he loves men, while the reverse is generally considered true of Khanukh; but Yehl, too, when his anger is stirred up sends sickness and evil fortune. Yehl existed before his birth upon earth; he cannot die, nor even become older.
Where the sources of the Nass are, whence the east-wind comes, is Nass-Shakieyehl, the home of Yehl; the east-wind brings news of him. By an unknown mother a son was bom to him, who loves mankind even more than his father, and provides their food in due season. To conclude the matter, Yehl is, if not the central figure, at least the most prominent in the Thlinkeet pantheon, and the alpha and the omega of Thlinkeet philosophy and theology is summed up in their favorite aphorism: As Yehl acted and lived, so also will we live and do.
After Yehl and Khanukh, the Thlinkeets believe in the brother and sister, Chethl and Ahgishanakhou, the Thunder or Thunder-bird, and the Underground Woman. Chethl is a kind of great northern rukh that snatches up and swallows a whale without difficulty, while his wings and eyes produce thunder and lightning, as already described; his sister Ahgishanakhou sits alone below and guards the Irminsul that supports the world of the North-west.
The Thlinkeets have no idols, unless the little images sometimes carried by the magicians for charming with may be called by that name; they have no worship nor priests, unless their sorcerers and the rites of them may be entitled to these appellations. These sorcerers or shamans seem to be much respected; their words and actions are generally believed and acquiesced in by all; though the death of a patient or victim, or supposed victim, is sometimes avenged upon them by the relatives of the deceased.
Shamanism is mostly hereditary; as a natural course of things, the long array of apparatus, masks, dresses, and so on, is inherited by the son or grandson of the deceased conjurer. The young man must, however, prove himself worthy of his position before it becomes assured to him, by calling up and communicating with spirits. The future shaman retires into a lonely forest or up some mountain, where he lives retired, feeding only on the roots of the panaz-horridum, and waiting for the spirits to come to him, which they are generally supposed to do in from two to four weeks.
If all go well, the meeting takes place, and the chief of the spirits sends to the neophyte a river-otter, in the tongue of which animal is supposed to be hid the whole power and secret of shamanism. The man meets the beast face to face, and four times, each time in a different fashion, he pronounces the syllable ‘Oh!'
Upon this, the otter falls instantly, reaching out at the same time its tongue, which the man cuts off and preserves, hiding it away in a close place, for if any one not initiated should look on this talisman the sight would drive him mad. The otter is skinned by the new shaman and the skin kept for a sign of his profession, while the flesh is buried; it was unlawful to kill a river-otter save on such occasions as have been described.
If, however, the spirits will not visit the would-be shaman, nor give him any opportunity to get the otter-tongue as described above, the neophyte the tomb of a dead shaman and keeps an awful vigil over night, holding in his living mouth a finger of a dead man or one of his teeth; this constrains the spirits very powerfully to send the necessary otter.
When all these things have been done, the shaman returns to his family emaciated and worn out, and his new powers are immediately put to the test, his reputation depends on the number of spirits at his command.
The spirits are called yek and to every conjurer a certain number of them are attached as familiars, while there are others on whom he may call in an emergency; indeed, every man of whatever rankor profession is attended by a familiar spirit or demon who only abandons his charge when the man becomes exceedingly bad.
The world of spirits in general is divided into three classes: keeyek, tákeeyek, and tékeeyek. The first class, ‘the Upper Ones,' dwell in the north, and seem to be connected with the northern lights; they are the spirits of the brave fallen in battle. The other two classes are the spirits of those that died a natural death, and their dwelling is called takankóu. The tákeeyek, 'land-spirits,' appear to the shamans in the form of land animals. With regard to the tékeeyek, ‘sea-spirits,' which appear in the form of marine animals, there is some dispute among the Thlinkeets as to whether these spirits were ever the spirits of men like those of the other two classes, or whether they were merely the souls of sea animal.
The supreme feat of a conjurer’s power is to throw one of his liege spirits into the body of one who refuses to believe in his power; upon which the possessed is taken with swooning and fits.
The hair of a shaman is never cut. As among the Aleuts, a wooden mask is necessary to his safe intercourse with any spirit; separate masks are worn for interviews with separate spirits.
When a shaman sickens, his relatives fast for his recovery; when he dies, his body is not burned like that of other men, but put in a box which is set up on a high frame.
The first night following his death, his body is left in that corner of his hut in which he died. On the second night, it is carried to another corner, and so on for four nights till it has occupied successively all the corners of the yourt, all the occupants of which are supposed to fast during this time. On the fifth day, the body is tied down on a board, and two bones that the dead man had often used in his rites when alive are stuck, the one in his hair, and the other in the bridge of his nose. The head is then covered with a willow basket, and the body taken to its place of sepulture, which is always near the sea-shore; no Thlinkeet ever passes the spot without dropping a little tobacco into the water to conciliate the manes of the mighty dead.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. Native Races of the Pacific States. Vol. 1, Appleton, 1874.
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