Sacred-One-Standing-and-Moving

Haida · deity · mythic primordial · deity

Sacred-One-Standing-and-Moving (Ḵuuya Gyaag̱andal) is the world-bearer of Haida cosmology. In the Skidegate myth recorded by Swanton under the title 'Sacred-one-standing-and-moving, Stone-ribs, and Upward,' the supernatural beings gather to choose who will hold up the islands, and he accepts the task, balancing Haida Gwaii on a great pole braced against his chest above a copper box. When he stirs, a marten runs up the pole and the vibration is felt across the land as an earthquake. The figure remains vivid in living Haida culture: he was carved on the Gwaii Haanas Legacy Pole raised at Windy Bay in 2013 to commemorate the 2012 Haida Gwaii earthquake.

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