Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends: Folk Tales of the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Nortwest Coast Indians
    The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends: Folk Tales of the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Nortwest Coast Indians
    The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends: Folk Tales of the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Nortwest Coast Indians
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends: Folk Tales of the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Nortwest Coast Indians

    By W.L. Webber

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    CONTENTS
    PREFACE
    FOREWORD
    THE TRANSITION OF TOTEMISM
    INDIAN BASKETS
    THE ARISTOCRATIC ABORIGINES
    STICK GAME
    THE THUNDER BIRD
    EENA, THE BEAVER
    OL-HIYO, THE SEAL
    KUTZE-CE-TE-UT, THE WOOD WORM
    KEE-WAR-KOW, THE SUN
    SISUITH OR SE-SOOK, THE TWO-HEADED SNAKE
    THE ILL-JOW
    HO-XHOK, (HO-HOOK), THE CRANE
    SHWAH KUK, THE FROG
    CHEE-CHE-KA, THE MINK
    LE-LOO, THE WOLF
    WOLALEE, THE SALMON
    CHET-WOOT, THE BEAR
    MEN-A-MOOKS, THE OTTER SPIRIT
    PI-CHIKAMIN, THE GIFT COPPER
    "PROPERTY WOMAN OR GREAT GRANDMOTHER"
    SLAG’AME, THE BUTTERFLY
    SHAMAN, THE MEDICINE MAN
    CHAK-CHAK, THE EAGLE
    KWEL-KWEL, THE OWL
    SKAM-M, THE HALIBUT
    WELALA, THE MOUNTAIN SPIRIT
    QUIL-TUM-TUM
    KWAIE’TEK, THE SEA GULL
    MATEEH, THE GOAT
    SKANA, THE BLACK FISH
    HE’-E-TLIK, THE LIGHTNING SNAKE
    EH-KOLIE, THE WHALE
    THE YOUNG RAVEN
    KUUMA, THE BULL HEAD
    GAL-QUITH, THE COD FISH
    MAHT-MAHT, THE DUCK
    QA-YEL, THE GREAT RAVEN
    THE THUNDER BIRD TOTEM POLE
    THE SHADOW PEOPLE AND THE RAVEN
    CHIEF SISA-KAULA'S TOTEM POLE
    STORY OF THE MINK (BORN-TO-BE-IN-THE-SUN)
    SIWASH ROCK
    THE THUNDER BIRD TOTEM POLE
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStargatebook
    Release dateAug 7, 2017
    ISBN9788822809148
    The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends: Folk Tales of the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Nortwest Coast Indians

    Related to The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends

    Related ebooks

    Children's Legends, Myths & Fables For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      No 7 Surf's Up In Africa

      Sep 25, 2017

      No 7 Surf's Up In Africa
      1 min read

    • Article

      Walking Into New Worlds

      Aug 13, 2020

      Walking Into New Worlds
      10 min read

    • Article

      What Are Totem Poles?

      Oct 31, 2019

      What Are Totem Poles?
      1 min read

    • Article

      Culture Before Columbus

      Dec 15, 2020

      Culture Before Columbus
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Walk Among The Ancients

      Mar 2, 2021

      A Walk Among The Ancients
      6 min read

    • Article

      Books With The Most Impact

      Mar 15, 2022

      Books With The Most Impact
      8 min read

    • Article

      What the Past Throws Out

      Mar 1, 2019

      Have you ever wondered how people lived long ago? What did they eat for breakfast? Did they wear hats? What kind of tools did they use? The answers might be hiding in their trash. Like modern towns, every long-ago village had a garbage pile. These

      2 min read

    • Article

      Emeralds, Elephants And Eric The Opalised Fossil: The 10 Greatest Stones In Art

      Nov 7, 2022

      Stones have shaped culture for as long as culture has existed. Their uncanny shape has led us to tell stories – of trolls disguised as boulders, of maidens cursed for dancing on the sabbath, of a snake-haired woman whose eyes petrified. They have pro

      5 min read

    • Article

      American Interior

      Dec 5, 2018

      American Interior
      7 min read

    • Article

      Hunting for History Books

      Sep 3, 2019

      Hunting for History Books
      11 min read

    • Article

      The History Of Yōkai

      Nov 4, 2021

      The History Of Yōkai
      9 min read

    • Article

      Books With The Most Impact

      Mar 15, 2023

      Books With The Most Impact
      9 min read

    • Article

      Mermaids And Sea Myths

      Nov 3, 2022

      Mermaids And Sea Myths
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Return

      Aug 1, 2020

      The Return
      27 min read

    • Article

      Palissy The Potter

      Jan 27, 2022

      Palissy The Potter
      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Thunder Bird Tootooch Legends - W.L. Webber

      POLE

      PREFACE

      The object of writing the Thunder Bird Legends is: To induce the Indians to think about themselves and to unite and band them together in all common purposes. Although they are heirs of the ages, the mighty forces of modern democracy threaten to strip them of their wise primitive culture as it has done to almost all of the American Indian tribes:

      That these tales will give the Indians courage to guard and defend themselves from those who would transgress upon their inherited rights and privileges by imbuing them with thoughts and ideals of their own.

      It is also hoped they will stir within, and unfold, their artistic talents, expand and develop their abilities, enabling them to acquire a greater and wider mode of life.

      Throughout these stories an effort has been made to tell how the Indian Tribes lived, their hospitality and friendliness; the philosophical ideas of a heroic race of natureloving people.

      It is expected that the legends will be criticised by the Indians themselves as well as by others who have a greater knowledge than the writer has acquired, but he nevertheless hopes that they will be accepted in the spirit in which they are dedicated.

      THE AUTHOR

      FOREWORD

      The Thunder Bird TOOTOOCH Legends have been written to explain the more important of the single objects carved on totem poles and other articles connected with totemism and the secret societies of the Northwestern Indian tribes. The legends tell how individuals as well as the tribes earned their crests as tokens of achievement and distinction. These stories have been passed down by word of mouth from time immemorial.

      For years the writer has received inquiries regarding the totemic designs of poles and basketry, and, in and effort to satisfy them, he traced the Thunder Bird Legend. First published in a stamp-size booklet that has had a circulation of 275,000 copies, it so excited the imagination of the tourists invading the Northwest that the Indians could not keep up with the demand for totemic objects.

      The designs in his book are from original drawings and carvings on totem poles at present in the possession of the author. They are the work of primitive-minded Indians of artistic ability, the most notable being Charlie James (Yakuglas of the Kwakiutls of Alert Bay). Other carvers have unknowingly contributed their truly excellent craftsmanship to this work, Jacob Louie and Herbert Francis of Nootka, and Titus Campbell of Port Essington being among them.

      The stories have been collected during the past ten years from various Indian tillicums, and some have been taken from the works of Boas and Staunton, published by the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. These works were obtained through the courtesy of Mr. T. P. O. Menzies of the Vancouver City Museum, to whom the author wishes to express deep gratitude, as well as to other members of the Museum staff.

      Charlie James and those like him are endeavoring to preserve the arts of their people. In all too much of Indian craftsmanship the influence of the white man has corrupted the primitive conception of art: gaudy painting cannot cover poor workmanship. The Department of Indian Affairs could do much to re-educate the Indian along these lines by freely exhibiting collections of authentically old craftsmanship to the rising generation. The work of Charlie James, besides being on view in Stanley Park, Vancouver, and Lincoln Park, Chicago, has won an honored place in the collections of many noted collectors, including the Emperors of Japan and Siam. Under his guidance some famous mortuary posts have been reconstructed, and his present position of Instructor in the Art of Carving to the pupils of the Government Indian School, is one to which he is eminently suited.

      The author is indebted to Anna Wilson, a Haida Indian. for one of the folk tales of her people, and also to Oscar Peers of the King-come Inlet Band for the Legend of the Cod Fish. The description of the Thunder Bird Totem Pole of Stanley Park was contributed by Elline Newman of Alert Bay.

      It was originally intended that this work should be profusely illustrated in color by the excellent drawings of Mr. B. Slaughter, but it has been again found necessary to bring out this edition in a cheap and popular form, with black and white illustrations.

      THE LEGENDS

      EXPLAINS THE TOTEM SYMBOLS

      These Legends are the key to the most important single objects carved on Totem Poles and used in decorative arts of the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. To the Indians who have adorned me with Knowledge Beyond Dreams

      THE TRANSITION OF TOTEMISM

      When the early explorers, Captain Cook and the Fur Trader, Captain John Mears, sailed the seas of the Pacific Northwest, a great deal of their time was spent on the West Coast of Vancouver Island at Nootka, then known as Friendly Cove, where the early ships of the Spanish Dons chanced to touch.

      The early adventurers observed that the aborigines practiced what they thought to be a hitherto unknown religion, having many weird rituals and ceremonies and requiring a grotesque regalia representing the supernatural animals and birds. This religion has since been identified as Totemism.

      Totemism was created in the pre-historic age by the fathers of organized society and improved as the mentality of the human race developed. When ancient hunting had ceased, the tribes formed themselves into fishing communes, out of which rose private property, social classes and slaves, thereby creating the custom of barter. This first transition of mankind occurred thousands of years ago in Europe, Asia and Africa. The records of these first human movements are given in stone on the Upper Nile and in the temples of India. It is hard to imagine in these modern times, when civilization is supposed to be at a high peak, that the Indians of the Northwest and other North American Indians, were so belated. The transitions of the human race

      are slow, they have many setbacks. Totemistic societies still function in many other parts of the world, as among the native tribes of Australia, Korea, and even in modern Japan.

      The functions of the Totemism of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1