Tlingit Sacred Peace Dance ... : Danse sacrée de la paix Tlingit (réimpression) ...

• Main Author: Swanton, John R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies 2024
• Subjects: dance; peacemaking; oral culture; Indigenous tradition; tlingit
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.60676/0wxd2802; https://journal.networkonculture.ca/index.php/matrix/article/view/18

The man that first learned about dancing was upset in a canoe and became a land-otter-man called Tûts!îdîgû'L, who has very great power. Some time afterwards four boys were drawn out to sea after some black ducks, upset there, and taken into the land-otters' dens. A shaman told the people where they were, and they burned out the dens, killing many otters, but Tûts!îdîgû'L escaped with the boys. Now the land otters made war on human beings, and the bodies of the latter broke out in pimples and sores which were really caused by the spider-crab-shell arrows. At last some people came upon two white land otters, which they carried home and treated as if they were deer (peace ambassadors). Then the land otters came to the town and danced to make peace. ...