 Marshall
Cultural Atlas
This collection of student work is from
Frank Keim's classes. He has wanted to share these works for others
to use as an example of Culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These
documents have been OCR-scanned. These are available
for educational use only.
The Birth of
Raven
A long time ago, before living beings
were created, Dis (Moon), his beautiful wife and his sister all lived
together. His wife was at times in the form of a bird. Dis was so
possessive and jealous of his beautiful wife that he ordered his
slaves to kill his sister's sons as soon as they were born. He did
not want any male competition.
Every day Dis's sister would leave
the house and walk to a point looking out over the water, and there
she would weep for her sons. One day as she wept, she heard a voice
saying, "Why do you weep?" She looked around and could not see
anyone. Then she went home wiping the traces of tears away so her
brother would not see that she had been crying.
Time passed and she went back to the
same point again, and as she wept she heard a voice, "Why do you
weep?" This time, without looking to determine where the voice came
from, she said, "Because I had so many sons and my brother always
killed them."
The voice she heard was the voice of
the killer whale. She was instructed to pick up a small smooth pebble
when the tide went out. "Heat up the pebble and then swallow it. Do
not get scared," the killer whale said, "you will not be
burned."
She did as she was told. When the
tide was out, she walked to the water's edge. There she found a small
smooth pebble. She carried it to the fire and heated it. When it was
hot, she swallowed it. Soon she gave birth to a son. She found a cave
where she raised him. He grew rapidly and soon he was a young
man.
One day his uncle sent for him. "You
are a grown man. It is time for you to work for your uncle." His
mother cautioned him and told him that his uncle would kill him. In
spite of her warning, he went to his uncle.
He was told to chop down a tree. The
tree branches were made of material that was like iron. These
branches had killed many of his brothers before him. As they chopped
off the branches made of iron, they would fall on them and kill them.
The young man, now called Yéll (Raven), began to chop. As he
chopped, the iron branches fell on him bouncing from his head, and
did not harm him. Since he was formed from a rock, he could not be
harmed by the iron branches. He gathered the branches and backpacked
them to his uncle's house. There he dropped them by the front
entrance. As they fell, the sound of the falling iron branches
echoed, claannnnk! His uncle heard the sound of the precious iron
branches as he sat by his fire. He groaned, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Then
he calmed himself and called out, "Yéll, did you chop down the
tree?"
YéIl answered, "Yes I have
brought the branches. I will now bring the tree."
His uncle was furious, and so he
plotted. He said, "Yéll, my nephew, you are to return to help
me with the dugout canoe that I am building."
Yéll went back to his mother,
and she again cautioned him that his uncle would try to kill him. In
spite of this warning, he went back and his uncle said to him, "We
will walk to the forest." There they began to work on the dugout
canoe. After it was dug out, his uncle said, "My canoe, smother him!"
At his command, the canoe closed up on YélI. His uncle left
him there to die while he went home.
YéII waited until his uncle
left. Then he pushed the sides open with his elbows, gathered up the
two pieces, put them on his shoulders and packed them to his uncle's
house where he dropped the two pieces near the entrance of the house.
The spirit of the canoe had already told his uncle what had happened.
When his uncle heard the pieces of the canoe fall, he said,
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh, my precious canoe!"
Yéll went back to the cave
where he lived with his mother. He was angry this time. He was very
angry at his uncle. Therefore, he went back to his uncle's house. His
uncle had put his wife, Koon, who could change into a beautiful bird,
in a wooden box and pulled the box up into the rafters of his house
before he left. Yéll came into the house and brought down the
box. He was still so angry that he pulled off all the beautiful
feathers from the bird and freed it.
Today the Tlingits use the treasured
yellow feathers on their headdress.
Yéll knew his uncle would be
furious when he came home so he hurried and killed a duck. He also
killed a long sharp-nosed bird, and he got into it. Then they went
out on the water.
When Yéll's uncle came home
his slaves were so scared they scattered into the forest. Soon they
could hear Yélls uncle, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhaga na ahhhhhhhhhhh!" As he moaned, the water began to
rise higher and higher and higher. In his anger, Yéll's uncle
called on this last weapon, the flood, to take revenge on his
nephew!
As the water continued to rise and
rise, Yéll began to fly straight up. He flew and flew until he
finally reached the sky. His long beak went through the sky and he
hung there. His mother floated on the water as it rose. A long time
later, he could feel the water, and he knew that the flood had
reached its peak.
Elaine
Abraham
Christmastime Tales
Stories real and imaginary about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1996 |
Christmastime Tales II
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 1998 |
Christmastime Tales III
Stories about Christmas, Slavik, and the New Year
Winter, 2000 |
| Summer Time Tails 1992 |
Summertime Tails II 1993 |
Summertime Tails III |
| Summertime Tails IV Fall, 1995 |
Summertime Tails V Fall, 1996 |
Summertime Tails VI Fall, 1997 |
| Summertime Tails VII Fall, 1999 |
Signs of the Times November 1996 |
Creative Stories From Creative Imaginations |
| Mustang Mind Manglers - Stories of the Far Out,
the Frightening and the Fantastic 1993 |
Yupik Gourmet - A Book of
Recipes |
|
| M&M Monthly |
|
|
| Happy Moose Hunting! September Edition 1997 |
Happy Easter! March/April 1998 |
Merry Christmas December Edition 1997 |
| Happy Valentine’s
Day! February Edition
1998 |
Happy Easter! March/April Edition 2000 |
Happy Thanksgiving Nov. Edition, 1997 |
| Happy Halloween October 1997 Edition |
Edible and Useful Plants of Scammon
Bay |
Edible Plants of Hooper Bay 1981 |
| The Flowers of Scammon Bay Alaska |
Poems of Hooper Bay |
Scammon Bay (Upward Bound Students) |
| Family Trees and the Buzzy Lord |
It takes a Village - A guide for parents May 1997 |
People in Our Community |
| Buildings and Personalities of
Marshall |
Marshall Village PROFILE |
Qigeckalleq Pellullermeng ‘A
Glimpse of the Past’ |
| Raven’s
Stories Spring 1995 |
Bird Stories from Scammon Bay |
The Sea Around Us |
| Ellamyua - The Great Weather - Stories about the
Weather Spring 1996 |
Moose Fire - Stories and Poems about Moose November,
1998 |
Bears Bees and Bald Eagles Winter 1992-1993 |
| Fish Fire and Water - Stories about fish, global warming
and the future November, 1997 |
Wolf Fire - Stories and Poems about Wolves |
Bear Fire - Stories and Poems about Bears Spring,
1992 |
|
