 Tlingit Indians of Southeastern Alaska
MYTHS RECORDED IN ENGLISH AT SITKA
1. RAVEN
No one knows just how the story of Raven
really begins, so each starts from the point where he does know it. Here it
was always begun in this way. Raven was first called Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa-yit ("Son
of Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa"). When his son was born, Kit-ka'ositiyi-qa tried
to instruct him and train him in every way and, after he grew up, told him he
would give him strength to make a world. After trying in all sorts of ways Raven
finally succeeded. Then there was no light in this world, but it was told him
that far up the Nass was a large house in which some one kept light just for
himself.
Raven thought over all kinds of plans for
getting this light into the world and finally he hit on a good one. The rich
man living there had a daughter, and he thought, "I will make myself very
small and drop into the water in the form of a small piece of dirt." The
girl swallowed this dirt and became pregnant. When her time was completed, they
made a hole for her, as was customary, in which she was to bring forth, and
lined it with rich furs of all sorts. But the child did not wish to be born
on these fine things. Then its grandfather felt sad and said, "What do
you think it would be best to put into the hole? Shall we put in moss?"
So they put moss inside and the baby was born on it. Its eyes were very bright
and moved around rapidly.
Round bundles of varying shapes and sizes hung about
on the walls of the house. When the child became a little larger it crawled
around back of the people weeping continually, and as it cried it pointed to
the bundles. This lasted many days. Then its grandfather said, "Give my
grandchild what he is crying for. Give him that one hanging on the end. That
is the bag of stars." So the child played with this, rolling it about on
the floor back to the people, until suddenly he let it go up through the smoke
hole. It went straight up into the sky and the stars scattered out of it, arranging
themselves as you now see them. That was what he went there for.
Some time after this he began crying again, and he cried
so much that it was thought he would die. Then his grandfather said, "Untie
the next one and give it to him." He played and played with it around his
mother. After a while he let that go up through the smoke hole also, and there
was the big moon.
Now just one thing more remained, the box that held the
daylight, and he cried for that. His eyes turned around and showed different
colors, and the people began thinking that he must be something other than an
ordinary baby. But it always happens that a grandfather loves his grandchild
just as he does his own daughter, so the grandfather felt very sad when he gave
this to him. When the child had this in his hands, he uttered the raven cry,
"Ga," and flew out with it through the smoke hole.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MATERIALS LIST & GOALS
SECTION 1: Tlingit
Country
SECTION 2:
Clans
SECTION 3: Summer
Camp
SECTION 4: Tlingit
Economy: Surplus
SECTION 5: Wrap
Up
APPENDIX A: Brief
Description of Tlingit Culture
APPENDIX B: A Sample
Winter Clan House
APPENDIX C: Northwest
Coast Materials in ASD AVS Center
APPENDIX D: Juvenile
Literature on Northwest Coast Cultures
APPENDIX E: Art
Bibliography
APPENDIX F: Northwest
Coast Cultures Bibliography
APPENDIX G: Schools
Which Own Northwest Coast Study Prints
APPENDIX H: Raven
Stories (reprints)
APPENDIX I: Recorded
Versions of Clan Crest Stories
APPENDIX J: Some
Northwest Coast Art Activities
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