A famine strikes as game animals vanish. Crow remains well-fed, arousing suspicion. Nighthawk discovers that Crow has hidden the animals underground. The people confront Crow, eventually releasing the animals. To make hunting difficult, Crow covers the animals with bones, forcing hunters to target their noses. Later, Crow adds ribs to the animals, shaping their current form.
Source:
The Beaver Indians
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 4
New York, 1912
► Themes of the story
Trickster: Crow embodies the trickster archetype by cunningly hiding the animals and manipulating their forms, impacting the people’s survival.
Conflict with Nature: The people struggle against the unnatural disappearance of game animals, leading to famine and a direct confrontation with Crow to restore balance.
Cosmic Order and Chaos: Crow’s actions disrupt the natural order, leading to chaos in the form of famine, which is eventually addressed by the people’s intervention to restore balance.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Dane-zaa people
Once, as winter was coming on, the people were dying of famine for the game animals had all disappeared from that region. Crow was not generally about with the remainder of the people but when he did visit them he appeared to be well fed and happy. The others agreed that they would watch him when he went home but when they tried it, one after the other was forced to give it up because it grew dark where Crow was going along. Telocye, nighthawk, was the last one who could still see him. When he too was about to lose sight of Crow he asked to have dust thrown in front of his eyes. When this was done the nighthawk could still see.[This was because twilight, when the nighthawk could see best, was imitated.]
► Continue reading…
“He disappears into the ground twice and beyond that I cannot see him,” Nighthawk reported. When asked if he could follow him he said he thought he could, so they all set out to find where Crow lived.
When they came there they found Crow had driven all the animals into the earth and had shut them up. That was the reason no animals had been seen. They attacked Crow but he fought back with a club and it was not an easy victory. The door behind which the animals were confined was made of fat. They were trying to tear it down so the animals might come out. Crow tried in vain to club the people back for one of them finally succeeded in breaking down the door. The animals all came out. “They are smart animals,” he said to himself. The animals all came out, but Crow found a way to make it difficult to kill them. He threw among them bones from which all the meat had been scraped. Again they were in trouble, for the animals were covered all over with bone and the only way they could be killed was to beat them on the nose until the blood vessels burst and they bled to death. The people were still dying of famine, and Crow himself was hungry. Then he made ribs and threw them among the animals. Because he did that the animals now have ribs.
This story belongs to the time when the world was being established.
Running and expanding this site requires resources: from maintaining our digital platform to sourcing and curating new content. With your help, we can grow our collection, improve accessibility, and bring these incredible narratives to an even wider audience. Your sponsorship enables us to keep the world’s stories alive and thriving. ♦ Visit our Support page
Dreamtime Whispers 