Like the Dzoonokwa, Bukwus is a wild creature of the woods. Described as a chief of the ghosts, he tempts travellers to eat his food, which transforms them into wild spirits like himself. The Bukwus dance is performed during the Tlasula.

After the disappearance of the excited headdress dancer and the sounding of the Tlasula horns announcing his imminent appearance, the attendants usher in a dancer, or group of dancers, whose function it is to display the inherited privilege toward which the entire Tlasula dance is focused. Some dances, such as the Gyidakhanis, feature groups of dancers and are re-enactments of mythical incidents or dances acquired from supernatural contact by an ancestor. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)