Quesalid was a
Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
shaman
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...
who lived on
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. He wrote an autobiography in Kwak'wala, the
Kwakiutl language, discovered by
Franz Boas and well known by
anthropologists, in which he recounted his experiences as a shaman from an authentic view.
Quesalid started to be interested in shamanism because he was suspicious that shamanism was not true. Then, he entered a "shamanism school," and learned how to play the role. But he continued, became a well known shaman, and continued to report his experience. A summary of his autobiography indicates that he moved from a sceptical position to a "social view" of shamanism—that shamanic work is psychology, and about the faith of the sick people, and the faith of the community.
Sources
*
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, Le Sorcier et sa magie, 1949, in "Anthropologie structurale", Paris, 1958. Chap. IX: Le Sorcier et sa Magie.
First Nations writers
History of British Columbia
Kwakwaka'wakw people
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