Sisiutl is the dread double-headed sea-serpent of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) and other peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast — a tremendous supernatural serpent with a horned head at each end and a human face at its centre, a being of terrible power whose mere sight can kill, yet which grants invulnerability and supernatural strength to the brave and the pure of heart who can master it. One of the most powerful and iconic of all Northwest Coast beings, carved on house-fronts, war-canoes, and the regalia of warriors and chiefs, Sisiutl is among the great monsters and protectors of the coastal world.
The Serpent with Two Heads
Sisiutl (Sisiuğł, Sisiutl) is pictured as an immense serpent stretched out with a head at each end — each a horned, fanged serpent-head — and, between them at the centre, a human-like face, often crested and horned. It is a creature of the water above all, dwelling in the sea and the deep places, able to move through the water, the earth, and even the rock, and to take many forms. To gaze upon Sisiutl unprepared is deadly: the sight of it can turn the beholder to stone, or twist the head backward, or bring instant death — so terrible is its power. It is a being of the boundary and the in-between, a guardian of thresholds and a power of awful potency.
The Bringer of Death and the Giver of Power
Sisiutl is profoundly double-natured — as befits its two heads — at once a bringer of death and a giver of supernatural power. For the unworthy, the fearful, or the impure, it is pure destruction. But for the brave and the pure of heart — the warrior who stands firm and does not flee, who has purified himself and faces the serpent without fear — Sisiutl becomes a source of immense power: its blood or its touch confers invulnerability, turning the skin to stone or making the body proof against weapons, and its scales and image bestow protection and supernatural strength. The hero who masters Sisiutl gains a mighty supernatural helper and the power to overcome his enemies. It is thus the supreme test and reward of courage, the serpent that destroys the coward and exalts the brave.
The Guardian Crest of the Coast
As a being of such power, Sisiutl is one of the great crest and guardian figures of the Kwakwaka’wakw and their neighbours. Its image — the long serpent with a head at each end and a face between — is carved and painted on the fronts of houses, on war-canoes, on the great ceremonial belts and regalia, and on the war-equipment of warriors, where it serves as a protective power, a sign of supernatural backing, and a guardian against enemies and harm. It appears in the masked dances of the winter ceremonials and in the crests of powerful lineages. In Sisiutl, the Northwest Coast peoples gave form to the awful double power of the supernatural — the force that is death to the unworthy and invulnerable strength to the worthy — and made of it a guardian carved across their most powerful objects.
Legacy
Sisiutl endures as the double-headed sea-serpent of the Kwakwaka’wakw and the Pacific Northwest Coast — the dread serpent with a head at each end and a human face between, whose sight is death to the fearful but whose mastery grants invulnerability and supernatural power to the brave and the pure. In it the cedar-and-salmon peoples embodied the terrible double nature of supernatural power and the test of courage, and carved it as a guardian on their houses, canoes, and regalia. As the great serpent-guardian of the coast, Sisiutl remains one of the most powerful and iconic beings of Northwest Coast mythology.