WASGO/GONAKADET - SEA WOLVES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST COAST:

Haida Wasgo, from a tattoo image.

Among the pantheon of mythical and legendary animals that populated the belief systems of the tribes of the Pacific Northwest was the Sea Wolf. On July 22, 2012, I published a column titled Native American Astronomy - The Constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo, about the beliefs of North American northwest coast tribes in this creature and concerning a constellation in the heavens that they identified with the sea wolf (Faris 2012). A powerful swimming creature with the head of a wolf and the body of a sea creature, some authors have relegated this creature to the realm of mythology, while others have argued it represents a sea serpent or some other crypto-zoological survivor. 

Cliff at Sproat Lake, British

Columbia. Sea Wolf at lower

left of picture.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

Sea Wolf from Sproat Lake,

Vancouver Island, British

Columbia, petroglyph.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

Gonakadet/Wasgo has the head of a wolf, and a body based upon that of the killer whale. Various other portrayals of him combine these themes, from showing a wolf with fins, to a sea animal with a wolf's head. The sea wolf is one image from the catalog of creatures commonly portrayed in the various media among the tribes of the North American Pacific Northwest. Gonakadet/Wasgo is carved on totem poles woven into basketry and fabrics, shown as tatoos and decoration on tools and utensils, and carved into the rocks as petroglyphs.

Swimming Sea Wolf, i.pinimg.com.

Well, it turns out that there actually are sea wolves and that a few fortunate zoologists (and of course the Native tribes) have always known about them. Known as Gonakadet by the Tlingit, and Wasgo by the Haida, this coastal sub-species of the gray wolf has adapted to a maritime lifestyle and lives predominately on seafood. "Unlike their inland counterparts that hunt deer and caribou, the sea wolves comb the beaches along B.C.'s iconic Great Bear Rainforest and, by and large feed off the ocean. They can swim for miles between coastal islands and eat whatever the sea serves up. They are known to prey on salmon for several months out of the year with fish making up 25 percent of their diet during the spawning season. They hunt seals and sea lions, chew on barnacles, turn up at the herring spawning grounds and feast on whale carcasses. Some even specialize in digging up clams and turning over rocks to look for crabs." (Talmazan 2016)

The sea wolves have been studied for years by British Columbian photdographer Ian McAllister. "We know from exhaustive DNA studies that these wolves are genetically distinct from their continental kin," says McAllister. "They are behaviorally distinct, swimming from island to island and preying on sea animals. They are also morphologically distinct - they are smaller in size and physically different from their mainland counterparts." (Talmazan 2016)

Sea Wolf petroglyphs at Nainamo

Petroglyph Park, Vancouver Island,

British Columbia.

Photo Peter Faris, 1995.

"Chris Darimont, science director at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, has studied the carnivores' unusual lifestyle for nearly two decades. Coastal wolves live with two paws in the ocean and two paws on land, Darimont says. When hunting for food, sea wolves can swim miles between islands and rocky outcrops to feast on seals and animal carcasses found on the rocks. "Our farthest record [of their swimming abilities] is to an archipelago 7.5 miles [12 kilometers] from the nearest landmass," he says. They once roamed all the way down to California in its former temperate rain forests. Now they only go down to just north of Vancouver", he says." (Petri 2016)

The peoples of the Pacific Coast of North America had a maritime lifestyle, roaming the ocean in their large sea-going canoes. Many of the tribes included whaling in their hunting/gathering inventory and they were used to long ocean voyages. Imagine the experience of a canoe crew a few miles off shore meeting a sea-going wolf swimming by. This story would be told and re-told, perhaps getting embellished in the re-telling, until it became a tenet of their rich and creative mythology.  

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter,

2012 Native American Astronomy - The Constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo, July 22, 2012, http://rockartblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/native-american-astronomy-constellation.html

Petri, Alexandra E.

2016 Meet the Rare Swimming Wolves That Eat Seafood, August 3, 2016, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/sea-oceans-wolves-animals-science/

Talmazan, Yuliya,

2016 Update: Photo of B.C. Sea Wolf Honoured by National Geographic, Sept. 24, 2016, https://globalnews.ca/news/2239088/national-geographic-puts-spotlight-on-b-c-s-enigmatic-sea-wolves/

NATIVE AMERICAN ASTRONOMY – THE CONSTELLATION GONAKADET/WASGO:

Gonakadet, Sproat Lake, Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada.

Photo: Peter Faris, 1995.

Northwest Coast tribes reportedly identified a constellation which was identified with the Sea Wolf, known as Gonakadet by the Tlingit, and Wasgo by the Haida. Next to "Raven," the most popular subject for totem pole art was the Gonakadet. Known also to the Haidas as "Wasgo," this monster is generally depicted as an aquatic wolf with some aspects of the killer whale. He is often depicted with the body and fins of a killer whale and the head of a wolf.

The Myth of Wasgo, the Sea Wolf

 “Wasgo, the Sea Wolf” also known as Sea-Bear, is based on the Tlingit-Haida myth of “Gonakadet” the Lazy Son-in-Law. In one version, he appears as a half killer whale and half wolf, with two fins and a wolf’s tail. In a condensed interpretive version of the story, the son-in-law becomes the hero. His mother continually takes the young man as a lazy so-and-so in law. The young man, despite the chiding from the old woman, secretly trains at night and successfully traps the great mythological creature Wasgo. Stripping it of its coat and donning the immense fur, the young man is granted the supernatural powers of the great creature.

 The young man catches many sea animals such as salmon, seals and Killer whales. Each time, he would take his catch and place it on the beach in front of this mother-in-law’s house. All was accomplished before the break of dawn. The mother-in-law discovers the unclaimed bounty each morning, telling her people that she is a great shaman and has summoned the creatures up from the sea to feed the people of her village. The old woman continuously boasts of her catch, as it increases both in number and in size. At last, the young man brings in three Killer whales to please his mother-in-law. The battle was long, completely exhausting the spirit of the young hunter. Falling on the beach next to his catch the young man finds himself trapped within the heavy skin of the Wasco, dead to the world, as we know it. The mourning call of Raven, finalizes the death of the young hunter.

 The mother in law rises with the morning to discover the great whales and the unusual Sea Wolf. Looking into the Sea Wolf’s eyes, the mother in laws recognizes her son- in-law. She realizes that it was his talents all along that brought the great wealth to her people. The mother- in-law falls to the beach, and dies of shame.

I have not yet been able to find a reference which points to the actual constellation or group of stars in the night sky which represents the constellation Gonakadet/Wasgo to these people of the North American northwest coast. This is however, a clear reminder to us that indigenous people did not leave questions unanswered; they had an explanation for everything, just like we do. Their explanations just might not agree with ours.