Alaska Native Knowledge Network
Resources for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing.

ANKN Home About ANKN ANKN Publications Academic Programs Curriculum Resources Calendar of Events ANKN Listserv and Announcements ANKN Site Index
Printer-friendly version
Yup'ik Raven This collection of student work is from Frank Keim's classes. He wants to share these works for others to use as an example of culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These documents have been OCR-scanned and are available for educational use only.


Browse the glossary using this index

Special | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O
P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ALL
:


Voices of Ravens

"Did you know that Ravens coo?
Well, they do..... and they cackle too."
I heard myself whisper, smiling,
as I straddled the trail with my skis,
arms akimbo on metal poles,
searching up through the broken nebula
of naked branches and blue dusk
for their confraternity of cackling voices,
muffled by wind soughing
in tall cottonwoods
and hard snow pelting wrinkled bark
and
my own furrowed face every now and then.

I was returning from the village spring
where I filled my bottles with sweetwater
and took a few moments
to just listen to these rowdy nighttime friends
and their raucous togetherness,
sounding now like a jeering mob or
the panic of a henhouse,
then
as the purr of kittens or
cooing of doves, and
suddenly
like solemn black staring silence itself . . . . . .

the voices of Raven.

Frank Keim


Keyword(s):

Go to University of Alaska The University of Alaska Fairbanks is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer, educational institution and provider is a part of the University of Alaska system. Learn more about UA's notice of nondiscriminitation.