A Trio of Tlingit Tales

Re-told by Christine G. Richardson

The Tlingit people live on the temperate southeastern coast of Alaska, among glacier peaks and humid spruce forests. Those who follow the traditional ways spend the summer in hunting and fishing camps. In winter, they live in large communal houses and pass the time weaving, carving, and performing elaborate ceremonies. The large, talkative ravens which hang around their dwellings looking for food inspired the myths about Raven the Trickster. He created the lumpy world out of earth and rocks, taught the people how to hunt and fish, and gave them many other gifts. Nonetheless, his voracious appetite, self-importance, and thieving nature often cause trouble for others, human and animal alike.

How Raven Got Light for His World

When Raven first created the world, the sky was a dark blanket with no sun, moon or stars. All the light in the world belonged to a chief who lived at the head of the Nass River. He kept some of it hidden in bundles hung up on the walls of the house, and some more in a box hanging from the roof rafters.

Raven flew up the river until he came to the chief's house. He hid in the bushes beside a spring and kept watch.

The chief had a beautiful daughter who was always guarded by two slaves. Wherever she went, one walked ahead of her, and the other walked behind. When she came down to the spring for a drink of water, Raven turned himself into a hemlock needle and slipped into the girl's drink. She swallowed him without realizing what was happening.

As the months passed, the girl's stomach grew bigger and bigger. When her father saw that she was going to have a baby, he asked her how it happened, but she had no idea. The slaves had never left her side.

The chief had the slaves dig a hole and build a little house over it where his daughter could give birth. He was a very proud man, so he told the slaves to line the hole with the finest furs, but a wise woman told him to use moss in the traditional way. The old man reluctantly agreed, and soon the baby Raven was born.

He looked just like any other baby, but his eyes moved swiftly and saw everything. The chief thought Raven was the finest grandchild anyone ever had. He was smart and healthy and hardly ever cried. After a while, Raven started crawling around like babies do, and figured out where the chief hid his light. Then he waited for the right time to make his move.

One night everyone was sitting around the fire listening to the old man tell a story. Just when he got to the best part, Raven started to cry as loudly as he could.

His mother picked him up, but he kept howling and jumped out of her lap. He crawled over to the wall and pointed at one of the bundles hanging there.

"What's the matter with my grandson?" the old man asked.

"Maybe he wants to play with that bundle," someone said.

"Well, give it to him," the chief said. "He can't hurt it."

They gave Raven the bundle which contained the stars. He stopped crying, and everyone went back to listening to the story. He played with the bundle all evening. When it was time to sleep, he rolled it into a dark corner and used it as a pillow. Everybody was afraid he would start crying if they took it away, so they let him keep it.

When the smoke hole was wide open and nobody was watching him, he turned himself back into his Raven form and used his strong beak to untie the cedar bark ropes that held the bundle together. The stars spilled out, flew up the smoke hole, and arranged themselves in the sky just as you see them today. While everyone was watching the stars flying off, he turned himself back into a baby again.

The grandpa was angry and shouted at his daughter, "Why don't you watch that kid of yours? Now my stars are all gone and I'll never get them back!" But he didn't stay angry long, because he really loved that baby and his daughter too. Raven crawled over to him and snuggled up to him. Soon people got used to seeing the stars in the sky and forgot how they got there. Then it was time for Raven to make his next move.

One night, when everyone was trying to sleep, Raven started crying so loudly that his mother was afraid that he would hurt himself. His mother tried to pick him up, but he squirmed away and crawled to the wall. He pointed at another one of the bundles, howling.

"NO!" the grandpa said. "That's the moon! Give him something else to play with!" But no matter what they tried, the baby kept howling.

Finally, the old man got tired of the noise. "All right!" he said. "Just give it to him so I can get some sleep." He pointed to two of his slaves. "Watch him every minute, and don't let him untie that bundle!"

Day after day, Raven played with the bundle. Night after night, he used it as a pillow. At first, the slaves watched him carefully, but they got bored. "A baby can't untie those hard knots!" they said to themselves.

One night, a visiting story teller came. Everyone gathered around a big fire, and the smoke hole was wide open. While everyone was listening to a thrilling story, Raven quietly rolled his bundle into a dark corner and untied the ropes. The beautiful moon floated out of the hole and up into the sky.

The chief was enraged. He yelled and beat the slaves and told his daughter that she was a bad mother. But nothing he did could bring his moon back. Tricky Raven crawled over to his grandpa and held out his arms, smiling. The old man could not resist picking him up. He loved that baby more than anything.

Raven waited a long time before he tried his next trick. Finally, one night, the chief gave a big feast for some visitors. While one of the guests was making a speech, Raven decided this was the time to try for the box of daylight that hung in the rafters. He crawled under it, pointed upwards, and started to cry. No matter what anyone did, he just cried harder and harder. No one could hear a word. When his grandfather realized what he wanted, he roared, "NO! That's my daylight! You lost my stars and my moon! If I lose my daylight as well, I will be a poor man!" He told his daughter to take the baby outside. Raven kicked and screamed and rolled his eyes until everyone thought he would die. After the visitors went home, he kept right on crying. He crawled to his grandfather and held out his arms and pointed at the box of daylight and sobbed and moaned. What was a grandfather to do? He handed over the daylight.

As soon as the baby had the box, he turned into his Raven form and leaped out of the smoke hole, laughing with delight at his own cleverness.

Raven flew along with his treasure until he heard voices joking and calling to each other. Some people were catching hooligan fish in the dark. Raven wanted to show off, so he landed nearby. He called to the people to send over a canoe and fetch him.

"Who are you?" they yelled across the water. "Why should we fetch you?"

"I'm Raven, that's who!" Raven yelled back. "If you don't come to fetch me, I'll let daylight break on you."

The people laughed at him. "Who is this fellow? Let him fetch himself!"

Raven opened the box a tiny crack. Daylight burst out, almost knocking the people down. They were angry and scared and started shouting insults at Raven. They knew that the chief of the Nass owned all the daylight. "Dirty old Raven," they taunted, "always stealing something!"

Raven jumped up and down in rage. He threw open the box. The sun rolled into he sky, and daylight shone everywhere. The people were so scared that some of them ran into the forest and became the forest creatures. Others jumped into the water and became the sea animals.

Raven laughed out loud when he saw the sun. "My world sure looks good now!" He ate all the fish the people had caught. Then he lay down in the sunshine for a long nap.

How Raven Named the Birds

Raven was always hungry. One day he saw some children playing with chunks of fat, throwing them back and forth to each other. He made himself look like one of them and joined the game. Each time he caught a piece of fat, he gulped it down. Soon the children noticed what he was doing. They tried to stop Raven, but he threw dog dirt at them until they ran away.

After he finished all the fat, he was still hungry. He looked around until he found a fishing camp, and flew down to see if there was any salmon hanging up to dry. He found no food, but he found a piece of jade with some carving on it half-buried in the ground.

He dug it up and was looking at it when he saw a big spring salmon jumping in the bay. He remembered some magic his uncle taught him. He spat on the stone and called to the salmon, "This green stone is calling you, you big fat salmon. Come here." But the salmon paid no attention. Raven scratched his head and tried to remember exactly what his uncle told him. Then he looked into his medicine back and found some bits of eagle down. He put them on the jade rock and called the fish again. The salmon swam right up to him. Raven hit it with a piece of wild celery and killed it.

Raven was too lazy to cook the fish by himself, so he called all the birds together. He told them to fetch some skunk cabbage leaves to wrap the salmon in, so they could bury it in the fire and roast it. When they came back with the leaves, he threw them on the ground, yelling, "These leaves are dirty! Somebody shit on them!" He sent them far away to look for better ones. While they were gone, he wrapped up the salmon and buried it in the fire. When it was ready, he ate the whole thing all by himself, wrapped up the bones and put them back in the fire.

When the birds returned, Raven said, "You're too slow. I already got my own leaves. Now it's time to dig out our feast!" When they opened the bundle, they saw nothing but bones! "I don't understand how such a thing could happen!" Raven said. "Must be some bad spirits around here." He could see that the birds were suspicious, so he decided to distract them. "Tell you what, " he said. "We'll forget all about that old salmon. Dress each other up and I will give you names."

The birds had lots of fun dressing up. They tied up the blue jay's hair with a string. They added a long tail to one bird, put yellow spots on another, and a red breast on another. Raven named them and told them what to do. He told the grouse to live high up where it is wintry. He told ptarmigan to teach people how to make snowshoes, because he was good at travelling on the surface of the snow. He told the robin to make people happy with his whistle, and appointed the wild canary head of the small birds. He gave talons to the eagle and told him he would have sharp eyesight and be above all the other birds. Nowadays, the birds still do exactly what Raven told them.

Raven and the Tide Woman

One day Raven was looking for mussels on the beach beside a big cliff. He happened to see a door swing open in that cliff. He hid behind a rock to see what would happen. He knew that Tide Woman, who makes the tides go up and down, lived somewhere in the neighbourhood. Sure enough, this was the door to her house.

Raven flew out over the water until he found a kelp bed. He climbed down the kelp to the bottom of the sea, and picked up lots of sea urchins. Than he sat down in front of Tide Woman's door and started opening them up with his big knife and gulping them down.

Tide woman yelled, "You sure are a noisy eater! Where did you get those sea urchins? The tide isn't low enough!"

Raven continued to eat, making even more noise.

Tide Woman yelled again. "You stole my sea urchins! You're a thief!"

"Keep quiet!" Raven answered.

The old woman kept on shouting at him. Finally Raven got tired of listening to her. He took his knife and slit open the cliff. He ran into her house, knocked her down, and started sticking sea urchin spines into her bottom.

"Ow! Stop that!" the old woman screamed.

Raven kept right on poking those spines into her. Finally the woman had more than she could take.

"Please stop," she begged. "I'll do anything you say."

Raven told her to make the tide low, so that everything on the beach would be uncovered and he could collect all sorts of good things for a feast. Then he made her promise to make the tides go up and down every day forever. Raven did that so people could always find food on the beach.

That's why, when a woman gets old like Tide Woman, she gets spots all over her bottom.