Beginnings
Note that these tales do not begin with any substantial cosmology; nor are they organized into one continuous evolutionary development. The great flood is
mentioned, but it is not linked to anything. Because of this, some people would refuse to call these raven stories origin myths at all. Yet, for our purposes, these
are origin myths because they make reference to primal times and define how the world came to be as it was when the first people lived in it. They also suggest
many of the important things that all origin myths should suggest -- the creation of people and animals, the conditions of spirit and life, acquisition of
knowledge and power, settling on a place as home, how to deal with the necessities of survival, and the cycle of birth and death.
The Raven Steals the Light
In the first tale, we discover how the sun, moon, and stars came to be. The main character is Raven who, like Coyote in other parts of the Western United
States, is a "trickster" figure. [For a more thorough discussion see my essay on the trickster.] Raven is just going about his typical day-to-day life; but without
light he keeps blundering into things. Typical of a trickster, his mind turns to bettering his situation. Note the sentence, "it slowed him down a good deal in his
pursuit of food and other fleshly pleasures, and in his constant effort to interfere and to change things."
Where is the light in this strange world of absolute darkness? It is kept deep inside an infinity of concentric boxes, in a plank house up the river, where an old man lives with the daughter he has never seen. In contrast to systematic origin myths, it is irrelevant how any of this got there. The emotional and social content is the important part -- the man who owns the light and possesses it in a carefully guarded cache of boxes, the daughter who has never been seen.
Raven, who is an immortal being, deals with all of this in a way that is typical of the trickster. Watching the daughter come down to the river to get water, his sexual appetite is stirred. [Like Coyote, Raven's sexual appetite is always inflated.] He transforms himself into a single hemlock needle, floats down river into the daughter's dipping basket, gives her thirst so that she drinks him down, and enters the house inside of her. Having symbolically impregnated her, Raven emerges as a human child who begins to grow up, as all spoiled boy children do, with his grandfather. Little by little, he gets the grandfather to give him the boxes until he finally gets the grandfather to toss him the light itself! In an instant, he is transformed back into Raven who flies out of the house through the smoke hole in the roof.
The world as we know it is born in this moment as Raven first flies above it with the light in his beak. But there is another great character who, in the first burst of light, is finally able to see its prey. It is Eagle who heads full speed at Raven, causing him to swerve and drop half of his cargo. Falling to the ground, this part of the light smashes into pieces, forming the moon and the stars! And as Eagle chases after Raven, the remainder of the light, the sun, is dropped beyond the rim of the world so that it can begin its daily passage across the sky. The concept of "the rim of the world" is common all the way along the Northwest and undoubtedly derives from the horizon that dominates their ocean-front homes.
In the end, while the old man has lost his sole possession of the light, he has gained the ability to see his daughter who is very beautiful. In this matrilineal society, the daughter's marriage and child bearing will carry on his lineage.
Raven Steals the Salmon
Typical of trickster figures, Raven is hungry for something tastier than his usual fare; and he flies over to the mainland. He meets two beavers who are
undergoing transformation to men. This is an important idea. For the Northwest people, history is divided into at least two major periods. The first period is
inhabited only by animals; it is in the second period that people begin to live along with animals who are merely "suggestive" of what animals were originally.
People have been created by transformation from the animal world. Some of the most powerful dance masks in the Northwest are transformation masks that are
animal in form outside but open to reveal a human face inside, thus reminding us of our creation and intimate relation to the animal world.
Raven looks scrawny and hungry so the beavers take him home. It is a great plank house such as men live in today, but there is a mysterious waterway hidden in back of the beautifully painted screen in the rear. The beavers pass back-and-forth through the screen to catch salmon and bring them out to eat.
Eventually, the beavers change back from men into simply beavers and bring Raven tree bark to eat. When they are out, he attempts to pass through the screen to get himself some salmon. Having finally discovered the secret, Raven is surprised to discover beyond the screen a beautiful land of lakes and streams full of salmon. Of course, he wants to grab it all and take it all home with him, but the salmon keep slipping out of his hands and arms. Eventually, he rolls up the whole carpet of landscape, puts it in his beak, and flies off with it, to plant it on hi favorite islands. [Coyote also has been known to stretch or transplant land in primal times.]
The event is of great importance, of course, because the salmon fishery is the most important food staple to the Northwest people.
Raven and the First Men
All origin stories have to tell of the creation of humans; this story is fairly typical of the Northwest Coast. Note the ways in which Raven continues to be a
trickster figure. He is in the area to "gorge himself on the delicacies," but "his other appetites -- lust, curiosity and the unquenchable itch to meddle and provoke
things, to play tricks on the world and its creatures -- these remained unsatisfied." Further note how Raven speaks in two voices -- "one harsh and strident, and
the other, a seductive bell-like croon" -- emphasizing his dual nature. Note, too, another reference to an original flood.
So Raven discovers men who are hidden inside of a huge clam shell on the beach. Note that, while they have long black hair and several other Northwest traits, they have white skin. This is a fairly common concept of the first people, and it created misunderstandings when the first Whites arrived on the scene.
While the first men prove to be somewhat entertaining to Raven, he eventually grows weary of them, especially since there aren't any women. There follows a blatantly sexual scene in which the female appearance of the chiton molluscs is used. The chitons are all impregnated by the first men who wind up wandering off, never to be seen again. So the people as we know them today, both male and female and brown-skinned, were born from the chitons.
Much has happened in this trickster story. First, there is the important division between primal times and modern human times. While men exist along with the animals in primal time, they are a different sort of men and they are not accompanied by women. It is Raven the trickster who brings sexuality into the world by creating both men and women of modern forms. Second, when people are created, it is out-of-the-sea, confirming or reinforcing their livelihood in the sea. Note, too, at the end, the sense that "it's nearly finished now" -- that is, that today's time is remote from primal, creative time.
Raven and the Big Fisherman
Raven stories, like their relatives the Coyote stories, tend to fall into two categories -- origin tales in which Raven is present or instrumental in some way in the
creation of things and simply Raven tales in which the personality of Raven as a trickster is developed and elaborated. The present story is clearly one of the
latter type.
Raven is a creature in mythic time; he can transform himself into different forms as he pleases; and even though he can be beaten up, broken up, and even burned up, he is immortal and returns to his normal form in due time. But most of all, Raven is a character who experiences strong appetites for comfort, food, and sex, and will do extravagant things to meet his needs. Hence, in the present story, it is Raven's appetite for food that brings him into the great house but, once he is satisfied, he turns to his sexual interests and has his way with the fisherman's wife. (How many fishermen wonder what their wives are doing while they are out at sea?) Even when Raven has been broken and mashed into pieces and is lying in the bottom of the latrine, he can't get his mind off of sex!
Raven with a Broken Beak
This tale continues on from the previous one and develops another popular theme in trickster stories. Tricksters often lose vital parts. Raven's loss of the upper
part of his beak is especially fortuitous because, without it, he looks silly and his speech is badly distorted, giving the story teller wonderful opportunities for
dramatization.
Raven is an immortal mythic character who can transform himself in infinite ways, of course, so one might ask why he can't simply replace his own beak. But that wouldn't make a fantastic story! In this case, the attempt to regain his beak allows Raven to show us all of his vast trickster talents when it comes to talking his way into situations and manipulating people to his own ends. So in the end, "Raven had brought a little pleasure, a little profit and even some knowledge to his favorite playthings, human beings."
Bear Mother and Her Husband
While the overarching moiety division was named by Raven and Eagle, each divided into important clans. In this story we hear the origin of the bear clan. It is
important, of course, to know the origin of one's clan, but the story tells us much about the relations between humans and animals in mythic time and about
social customs. The young woman has grown up in a prestigious household and can anticipate a good marriage to a powerful man. Yet she falls into slavery by
an unfortunate accident, while picking berries. The twist, of course, is that she has become a slave in a village of bears. Nevertheless, her relations with the bear
community proceed well and, with some good advice, she succeeds in bettering her position. So, in the end, she marries a very fine young male bear and has her
family and prestige after all.
At the end, her human brothers come hunting for bears and she is torn between her bear husband and children and her human family. The tension is resolved when her bear husband sacrifices himself to the human hunters after first making them understand the bear clan and initiating them. She returns to her human family and marries an appropriate male. Her bear children return to the bear village. But the human family has gained the honor of being the bear clan and owns the story, songs, rites, dances, and decorative bear images given them.
Nanasimgit and His Wife
This is an epic tale of a young man who proves himself worthy and is well positioned for marriage in his village but goes far away in search of the most
beautiful young woman he can find. Returning with his mysterious bride, he settles down and life seems to be going well until he hunts a white sea otter for its
magnificent fur. Then, as his wife goes to the seashore to clean a small speck of blood from the pelt, she is snatched up by a killer whale. The husband,
Nanasimgit, refuses to accept this loss and makes his way into the underwater "village" of the Orcas where, with some preparation, he invades the killer whale's
house and regains his wife and makes his way back home, pursued all the way by the whales.
While there is much to be learned in this tale, the central feature is the intimacy of relations between humans and natural creatures. Interests and intentions are shared commonly by all creatures.
The Wasgo and Three Killer Whales
The Eagle and the Frog
The Dogfish Woman