A man and his wife, lost in fog while canoeing in a bay, hear a powerful, echoing song. As the fog lifts, they trace the haunting melody to a tiny frog. Disputing ownership, the man relents, and the wife ceremonially leaves the frog by a lake. This event marks the origin of the Sitka Kiksa’di people, who honor the frog as significant to their lineage.
Source:
Tlingit Myths and Texts
by John R. Swanton
[Smithsonian Institution]
Bureau of American Ethnology
Bulletin 39
Washington, 1909
► Themes of the story
Origin of Things: It narrates the origin of the Kiksa’di clan’s association with the frog, explaining a cultural practice.
Supernatural Beings: The frog’s powerful, echoing song and its significant role suggest a supernatural element influencing mortal affairs.
Cultural Heroes: The man and his wife serve as foundational figures whose actions lead to the establishment of a significant clan symbol.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Tlingit people
Myth recorded in English at Wrangell, Alaska, in January-April 1904
A man and his wife were crossing the mouth of a big bay named le’yaq, when it became so foggy that they could not even see the water around their canoe and stopped where they were. Then, quite a distance away in the thick fog, they heard singing, and it continued for so long a time that they learned the song by heart. The words of this song are:
We picked up a man; you picked up a man
They captured a man; you’ve captured a man.
The voice was so powerful that they could hear it reecho among all the mountains.
When the fog began to rise so that they could look under it a little they heard the song coming nearer and nearer.
► Continue reading…
They looked about and finally saw that it came from a very little frog. To make sure of it they paddled along for some time in the direction it was taking. Then the man said, “This frog is going to be mine. I am going to claim it,” and his wife answered, “No, it is going to be mine. I am going to claim it.” But, after they had disputed for some time, the man finally let it go to his wife.
Then the woman took it ashore, treating it like a child, carried it up to the woods, put it down by a lake and left it there. From that time on, her people have been Kiksa’di. That is how the Sitka Kiksa’di came to claim the frog.
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Dreamtime Whispers 