Raven, feeling hungry during his travels, catches a large fish and smears its scales on his parka to appear as an expert fisherman. He convinces a village to follow him to his bountiful fishing spot but feigns forgetting his knife, sending them ahead. While they’re gone, he returns to the village and consumes all their provisions. Upon discovering the deception, the villagers attempt to shoot Raven but fail. A poor boy, with a bow made by his grandmother, successfully kills Raven; however, the villagers ultimately perish from starvation.
Source:
Ten’a Texts and Tales
(from Anvik, Alaska)
by John W. Chapman
The American Ethnological Society
Publications, Volume 6 (ed. Franz Boas)
E.J. Brill, Leyden, 1914
► Themes of the story
Trickster: Raven embodies the archetype of the cunning figure who uses deception to achieve his goals.
Conflict with Nature: Raven’s manipulation of natural resources and the villagers’ subsequent struggle for survival underscore a tension between humans (or animals) and the natural world.
Community and Isolation: The tale explores the dynamics between the individual (Raven) and the community (villagers), illustrating how deceit can lead to communal suffering and isolation.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Koyukon people
Told by Stephen Morton
Raven was travelling on a long journey, and he became very hungry. After a while he saw a big fish under the ice, and he made a fire and caught the fish. He put the scales aside; and after he had finished eating, he smeared them all over his parka, to make it look as though he had been doing nothing but catch fish. He went on, and after a long time he came to a big village. He went up into the kashime, and found it full of men. The old men were telling the younger ones to make the fire for the daily bath. So they made the fire; and after the bath, they asked the Raven for the news. He told them how his house stood alone, and how good the fishing was; and when they looked at his parka, they thought that he was telling them the truth. “Come,” said he, “everybody shall go with me tomorrow, and I will give you all the fish that you can carry away.”
► Continue reading…
So the next morning they all started out together; but when they had gone some distance, the Raven said, “Sakes alive! I have left my knife in the village!” So the men said to him that he had better go back and get it.
“All right,” said he, “but you go ahead; and if you get to my house before I catch up with you, go into my cache, and help yourselves to the best fish that there are there.” So he left them; and when they were out of sight, he flew back to the village, and went into the caches and ate up all the fish and meat that were there. Then he went into the houses and ate up all the parkas and bed-clothing, and everything else that he found. When the people found that they had been fooled, they came back, and found everything gone. The Raven was flying over the village, and the young men tried to shoot him with their arrows, but no one was able to hit him. There was a poor boy, however, who told his grandmother that he would like to try. So his grandmother made him a little bow and arrow, and he killed the Raven; but all the people in the village died of hunger.
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