Sisiutl

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A Kwakwaka'wakw Sisiutl dance mask made of cedar.
A Kwakwaka'wakw Sisiutl dance mask made of cedar.

The Sisiutl (Si’sEyuL) is one of the most powerful crests, and mythological creatures in the Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Coast Salish pantheons. The sisiutl (or sisiyutl) often appears in Pacific Northwest Indian folk art, legends, and songs.

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[edit] Form

Sisiutl are frequently depicted as a two headed sea serpent or snake with an anthropomorphic head (and hands) in the middle of the body. All three heads are surmounted by "horns of power" (also seen on thunderbirds).

The Sisiutl’s form may have biological inspiration from the local Rubber Boa, which has a false head on its tail. NWC whalers told of a powerful whaling charm, a black two headed “worm.”

The soulcatcher of the northern Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida peoples exhibits the same body form.

[edit] Powers

The humanoid central head likely symbolizes Sisiutl’s supernatural shape-shifting powers (most commonly transforming into human form, a self-propelled canoe, or salmon). Sisiutl could also change size from a few centimeters (form of a woodworm), to a span sufficient to block off a bay. As a transformative creature of vast shamanic power, the Sisiutl could travel in and across all boundaries (worlds): land, water, & air. There is a belief among the Coast Salish that Sisiutl employ orca for transportation.

So powerful are Sisiutl, that contact, stepping on one’s slime trail, or even seeing one, was believed to cause sickness or death. According to legend, looking at the sisiutl can turn a person into stone.

[edit] Usage

Artifacts commonly adorned with Sisiutl include masks, “flying" props, power boards (dance boards), totem poles, clubs, knives, whistles, house beams, button blankets, drums, wooden belts, pectoral ornaments, headdresses, frontlets, feast bowls, and canoe decorations.

Images or sculptures of Sisiutl were employed to guard canoes and cedar plank long-houses (the Sisiutl sculpture guarding one such house was said to flick its tongues as people approached). Warriors traditionally wear the sisiutl's emblem for protection in battle.

"No’nlEmg.ia" or "dantsikw" power boards, summoned by Tuxw'id dancers. Dantsikw boards are abstract Sisiutl.
"No’nlEmg.ia" or "dantsikw" power boards, summoned by Tuxw'id dancers. Dantsikw boards are abstract Sisiutl.

[edit] Enemies

Thunderbirds are one of the few predators of Sisiutl. Holly, and spat blood were some of the few implements able to harm a Sisiutl.


[edit] Associations

Sisiutl are associated with the salmon (one of Sisiutl’s forms), woodworm, Winalagilis (warrior spirit), the Sun (“Counselor of the World” steals the Sun’s Sisiutl mask, releasing daylight to the world in one Kwakwaka’wakw myth), Land-Otter Canoe, house of the sky people (Sisiutl guards it).

[edit] Ceremony

Tuxw'id (female warrior) dancers often incorporate Sisiutl in their performance, invoking Sisiutl to grant them the power of Winalagilis (warrior spirit): invincibility and immunity from pain. They may be seemingly pulled underground by a Sisiutl, or demonstrate their power by summoning No’nlEmg.ia figures (dantsikw dance boards) to rise from the earth (abstract representation of Sisiutl). Supernatural powers bestowed by Sisiutl might be theatrically demonstrated by 'miraculously' surviving burning alive, or being decapitated.

Dancers donning the mask of Sisiutl adorn themselves with western hemlock boughs, signifying wildness. Sisiutl masks were often hinged, allowing the serpent ends to simulate life-like serpentine writhing movements. Sisiutl masks were decorated with flecks of mica, which were believed to be scales shed by Sisiutl (often found on beaches). These mica chips provided an enchanting glittery effect when danced in fire-light.

[edit] Popular culture

  • Canadian artist Emily Carr depicted the sisiutl on a totem pole in her painting T'sadzis'nukwaame', derived from a Vancouver Island Native American village.[1] Canadian psychotherapist Tom Golden also refers to the sisiutl in his writing on trauma and loss.[2]
  • Silvey, Diane. 1996. “Whale Girl.” First Nations Educ. Division: Greater Victoria School District. Victoria. <<a children's picture book illustrating a Coast Salish myth where Sisiutl are the antagonists.>>

[edit] References

  1. ^ Emily Carr To The Totem Forests - T'sadzis'nukwaame'
  2. ^ Tom Golden LCSW-Standing in Your Tension
  • Boas, Franz. "Kwakiutl Ethnography." 1966. University of Chicago Press. London.
  • Jonaitis, Aldona, ed. ."Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwkaiutl Potltach." 1991. AMHH. Seattle.

[edit] External links

Classification: Native Americans: Indigenous People of America: Native Americans in the United States