Cannibal Bird Mask
When the warriors arrived back to Raven's Harbor, Chief Namqaw divided up the spoils and slaves among favorite house elders and ordered a victory dance that lasted long into the night. The fifty-five Kaw-Seth captives were pushed into the center of a circle to endure punches, blows with sticks and insults while the warriors and villagers danced around waving poles decorated with scalps and singing to loud whistles and drums.
In the village of our enemies, the Kaw-Seth survivors soon learned that they were no longer people at all. Along with the other slaves, we held the status of dogs. Just as a man might kick or kill a dog if it suited him, the Kaw-Seth people were nothing in the eyes of the Tsonox and were subjected to punishment or death for any reason.
Later during summer potlatch celebrations, slave owners concluded the re-enactment of a battle by killing a slave to impress his guests and demonstrate extravagant wealth. Cries for mercy from the wives and children of victims chosen for the commemorative dance were ignored. Hardships like these continued year after year. This is why it is said that in the houses of our enemy the Kaw-Seth learned to lick the bowls of suffering.
From the first day that the war canoes carrying the captives from the old village arrived, the Tsonox masters put the women and older children to work boiling batches of candlefish to make lamp oil, gutting salmon and hanging fillets for drying, weaving floor mats or scraping fat from deer skins. The men were forced to haul heavy water baskets and bundles of firewood, drag the canoes up to dry land and empty urinal boxes each morning. The slaves knew that to disobey or try to escape meant death by torture. Disobedient or lazy slaves might end up tied to logs on the beach to face death by the incoming tide.
Newly captured young men and boys were taken to the Warrior Society lodge and trained in the use of weapons to fight in Namquaw’s wars against vulnerable tribes up and down the coast. The Tsonox had spirit powers that permitted them to win battles. Only a handful of braves were honored at the spring funeral ceremonies. At the annual funeral chief Namquaw or his spokesman presided over a blood ritual in memory of the dead and in honor of the supernatural being Babakawquit of the Mountain.
Friends of the dead would stand bare-chested before the people, take a sharp arrow in their right hand and pierce themselves in the side without expression while the chief dressed in the finest regalia gave an oration in praise of the valor of the tribe. While the friends of the dead stood pierced with arrows in their bloody sides, dancers wearing Cannibal Bird and Old Crooked Beak masks pranced around the staging area before the communal fire to the beat of a drum. Spirits entered into the lodge during these memorial ceremonies and convinced the Tsonox men that they were mightiest of all warriors.
Warriors and house chiefs held special honor depending on their clans. Elders of the shark and killer whale clans ruled over the four villages and ranked above the lesser otter and minx clans and were assigned special places to sit at feasts each according to rank and linage. The ruling elders descended from men who won great exploits for the tribe long before, such as meeting supernatural beings in the high places, bringing home spoils and slaves from battles or killing giant bears, whales and sea lions on hunts when the people were in danger of running out of food.
Continued
In the village of our enemies, the Kaw-Seth survivors soon learned that they were no longer people at all. Along with the other slaves, we held the status of dogs. Just as a man might kick or kill a dog if it suited him, the Kaw-Seth people were nothing in the eyes of the Tsonox and were subjected to punishment or death for any reason.
Later during summer potlatch celebrations, slave owners concluded the re-enactment of a battle by killing a slave to impress his guests and demonstrate extravagant wealth. Cries for mercy from the wives and children of victims chosen for the commemorative dance were ignored. Hardships like these continued year after year. This is why it is said that in the houses of our enemy the Kaw-Seth learned to lick the bowls of suffering.
From the first day that the war canoes carrying the captives from the old village arrived, the Tsonox masters put the women and older children to work boiling batches of candlefish to make lamp oil, gutting salmon and hanging fillets for drying, weaving floor mats or scraping fat from deer skins. The men were forced to haul heavy water baskets and bundles of firewood, drag the canoes up to dry land and empty urinal boxes each morning. The slaves knew that to disobey or try to escape meant death by torture. Disobedient or lazy slaves might end up tied to logs on the beach to face death by the incoming tide.
Newly captured young men and boys were taken to the Warrior Society lodge and trained in the use of weapons to fight in Namquaw’s wars against vulnerable tribes up and down the coast. The Tsonox had spirit powers that permitted them to win battles. Only a handful of braves were honored at the spring funeral ceremonies. At the annual funeral chief Namquaw or his spokesman presided over a blood ritual in memory of the dead and in honor of the supernatural being Babakawquit of the Mountain.
Friends of the dead would stand bare-chested before the people, take a sharp arrow in their right hand and pierce themselves in the side without expression while the chief dressed in the finest regalia gave an oration in praise of the valor of the tribe. While the friends of the dead stood pierced with arrows in their bloody sides, dancers wearing Cannibal Bird and Old Crooked Beak masks pranced around the staging area before the communal fire to the beat of a drum. Spirits entered into the lodge during these memorial ceremonies and convinced the Tsonox men that they were mightiest of all warriors.
Warriors and house chiefs held special honor depending on their clans. Elders of the shark and killer whale clans ruled over the four villages and ranked above the lesser otter and minx clans and were assigned special places to sit at feasts each according to rank and linage. The ruling elders descended from men who won great exploits for the tribe long before, such as meeting supernatural beings in the high places, bringing home spoils and slaves from battles or killing giant bears, whales and sea lions on hunts when the people were in danger of running out of food.
Continued
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