“The Haida believed both animals and people had souls, which were essentially the same. The bodies of different animals were merely their “canoes” and all were capable of assuming other forms at will; “or better, they possessed a human form, and assumed their other forms when consorting with men.” The killer whales were believed to be the most powerful of all living beings, inhabiting villages under the sea. There were, in this fashion, sea-otter people, salmon people, grizzly people, geese people, etc.”
Gary Synder – He Who Hunted Birds in His Father’s Village, 1979, Grey Fox Press
West Pacific Review 