Reading Notes: Myths and Legends of Alaska (Readings A & B)

• The first man was 'birthed' out of a beach pea pod
• Raven is a man-bird god of some sort who is creating the world as he is introducing it to man
• This creation story is very opposite of the judo-christian order of the creation
• It is ironic that Raven is scared that men will kill all of his creatures... but continues to teach them how to kill them
• The a-mi-kuk: "This is a fierce animal and lives in the sea. It wraps its four long arms around a man or a kayak and drags it under the water. A man cannot escape it. If he climbs out of his kayak on the ice, the a-mi-kuk will dart underneath and break the ice. If Man runs away on shore, the a-mi-kuk pursues him by burrowing through the earth. No man can escape from it when once it pursues him"
• The Raven is also called Qa and Yel
• All of the people in "Raven's Marriage" can covert between animal and human forms
• I think Raven got married and had his wife leave him in one story
• Raven is a man that eats men... and whole seals
• A marmot tricks the raven 
• The Raven is a young orphan boy with a raven cloak
• The boy-raven goes to find the sun for his village
• He realizes that a man shoveling snow is blocking the sun
• The boy asks to live with the man
• The boy then steals the sun from the man
• Raven named and taught all of the birds
• All of the stories start with a capitalized word like "IT"
• A women hates bears but then unknowingly consents to marrying a man from the bear tribe
• Women in the north are good with needlework while women in the south are good dancers
• There is a lot of crossing over between the sky and the earth
• Dead people are called shades
• The ghosts are basically just invisible people
• There are a lot of stories about the sun disappearing 
• Thunderbirds ate and killed people
• Killer whales are ordered to be nice to people
• Animals, people, and plants all have the power to wish themselves into whatever they want to be throughout these stories

Reading Unit: Alaskan Legends from Myths and Legends of Alaska by Katharine Berry Judson

Chilkat Blanket. Web Source: History Museum