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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.


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How the Chicken Got Its Name

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How the Chicken Got Its Name
Many years ago, on a farm there lived a family that owned a rooster, horse, mouse, dog, cat and a funny looking animal that nobody knew what she was. The dog and cat were always fighting, while the mouse nibbled on the rooster's leg. The other funny looking animal went around all day making "clucking" noises.

Nobody seemed to mind the clucking noises at first, but after a while everyone was getting very irritated. The man tried everything he could to keep it quiet, but nothing worked. So, they all left it alone and let it continue its clucking noises. After a while, everyone got used to it and didn't seem to mind the noise.

The problem was that nobody knew what the animal was, and they didn't know what to call it.The man and woman tried to find names for the animal, but they couldn't think of any. So, did the children.

The dog and cat kept on fighting, and the mouse decided to nibble on the horse's leg. Once in a while the girl and boy would argue and fight too. When they did this all the other animals would be watching with their small, beady eyes. They would wonder why the two children were always fighting. This, would make the dog and cat fight even harder.

One day the girl and boy were fighting over a brand new bike that their father had bought for the both of them. The funny looking animal was near the girl's feet when her brother came over and started calling her names like chicken and scaredy cat. The boy ran towards his sister with a branch and tried to hit her. When she ran, she suddenly stumbled over the funny looking animal. The funny looking animal started to make clucking noises and ran off with a frightened look in her eyes. After that the children started calling the funny looking animal, chicken, because she got so scared she ran into the barn.

So, that's how the chicken got its name.

By: Marcia George


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