Case file · Folklore / legend
Bak'wa̱s, the wild man of the woods (Kwakwaka'wakw)
Bak'wa̱s is the small, green-faced chief of the ghosts in Kwakwaka'wakw tradition, who lives in the forest and tries to tempt people, especially the drowned, to eat ghost food so they cannot return to the living.
1897 CE · 50.69, -127.42 · status: legend
The account
Boas described him in his 1897 study of Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonies, and his deeply hollowed mask with hooked nose is danced in the winter ceremonial. He is linked to the spirits of those lost at sea.
The sceptical view
A spiritual figure, not an animal report.