Soulcatcher facts for kids

A Soulcatcher is a special charm or amulet used by spiritual healers, called shamans, from tribes along the Pacific Northwest Coast. These tribes lived in areas that are now British Columbia in Canada and Alaska in the United States. The Tsimshian people believed that their tribe made all the soulcatchers, which were then traded to other tribes.

What They Looked Like

Soulcatchers were usually made from a tube of bear bone, often a leg bone. They had carvings on them and sometimes shiny abalone shell decorations. Bears were seen as very powerful animals by these tribes.

These special tubes often had animal heads carved at both ends, like a land-otter or a bear. In the middle, there was often a human-like face. This design might have shown the idea of changing shapes or traveling between different worlds:

• The sky world (for gods)
• The earth world (for humans and animals)
• The water world (for spirits)

The land-otter was especially important, as it was thought to be the source of all shamanic power. Some believed a shaman's helper spirit lived in the central face of the soulcatcher.

The ends of the soulcatcher tube were plugged with shredded cedar bark. This was to hold a lost soul or to keep a bad spirit that a shaman had "sucked out" of someone. Soulcatchers were usually worn as a necklace. They were about 16 to 21.6 centimeters (6.6 to 8.5 inches) long.

While most were made of bone, a few were made of wood. There's even one example from the Haida tribe that was covered with copper.

How Soulcatchers Were Used

People believed that some illnesses that couldn't be cured by regular medicines were caused by "soul loss." This could happen if:

• Someone's soul left their body during a dream and couldn't find its way back.
• A person got so scared that their soul left their body.
• A soul was tricked out of the body by witchcraft.

To help someone with soul loss, the shaman would wear the soulcatcher as a necklace. The shaman would then go on a spiritual journey, often by using special music, masks, and staffs to call on helper spirits. Sometimes, shamans worked together, using special spirit boards to help them travel to the spirit world.

Once the shaman found the lost soul, they would "suck" it into the soulcatcher. Then, they would return to the sick person and "blow" the soul back into their body.

Another use for the soulcatcher was to "suck" bad spirits out of a patient who was suffering.

See also

• Body swap
• Soul dualism
• Soul loss

Images for kids

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  A Tlingit soulcatcher, made by Heendei, of the Raven moiety and the Deisheetaan clan.