Crow-Head

A man named Crow-Head lives with his grandmother. After local girls mock his crow-skin blanket, he curses them, leading to their demise in a Cree attack. Crow-Head survives by transforming into a squirrel and later avenges his grandmother’s death by killing the Cree. Consumed by jealousy, he drowns a successful young hunter and feigns innocence, but the community’s attempt to punish him fails due to his supernatural abilities.

Source:
Chipewyan Texts
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 1
New York, 1912

► Themes of the story

Trickster: Crow-Head embodies the trickster archetype, using cunning and supernatural abilities to outwit others, such as transforming into animals to defeat the Cree and deceiving others about the young man’s death.

Revenge and Justice: After being mocked, Crow-Head seeks revenge by cursing those who laughed at him, resulting in their deaths.

Resurrection: Crow-Head brings his grandmother back to life after she is killed by the Cree, showcasing a theme of resurrection.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Chipewyan Lore

Learn more about the Chipewyan people

Crow-head was living with his grandmother. While he was away looking at his nets, some girls came to visit her. They laughed at his blanket, made of crow skin with the bills of the crows joined together all about its border, which was hanging in the house. When Crow-head came back from his nets, he said to his grandmother, “Who has been laughing at my blanket?” “No one laughed at your blanket,” she said. “I see the marks of their laughing on it,” he replied. “There was no one here in your absence,” his grandmother said. “People were not here. But their laughing shows. Because they laughed at my blanket, may the Cree get them all!” “What shall I do then?” said his grandmother. “I will take you back north,” he said. At night, he heard the people fighting with the Cree.

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All those who had laughed at his blanket were killed. He himself crawled under a birchbark dish. The Cree threw all the clothes into the fire. Then they threw in the birchbark dish, but it jumped out again. Again, they threw it in, and again it jumped out. Then they held it in the fire with a stick and a squirrel ran out of the fire from it. The Cree fought with the squirrel until they thought they had killed it. Then he turned himself to a hair and went through the hearts of all the Cree and killed them. After that, he went to his grandmother whom the Cree had killed, put his head down by her, and began to cry. He was there a long time without going to sleep. Soon his grandmother was alive again and sat there hunting for the lice in his head.

Once, when he was living with the people, there was a young man of whom he was very jealous. After a while, the people all went out to their canoes, after swans. As they were paddling about, he met this young man. Crow-head himself, had no swans; only the young man had succeeded in killing them. He overturned the young man’s canoe and caused him to drown. Taking the swans, he paddled back with them. When they were boiled, and were placed before Crow-head he said, “I will not eat the swans because I love only my young friend.” After a long time, the others looked for the young man and found him drowned. “We will kill him,” they said, and went back after Crow-head. When they tried to spear him, he hit the points of their spears so that they could not kill him. They fought with him a long time and tried hard to kill him but were unable to do so. Crow-head used to fight with the people and kept killing them.

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A man-eating monster

A man becomes ensnared in sunbeam snares set by the man-eating giant, Holdile. Feigning death, he is placed in a sack and carried to the giant’s home. The man escapes, deceives the giant’s children, and flees. After a chase, he tricks the giant into burning his cape and kills him with a stick. However, the giant resurrects and continues hunting humans.

Source:
Chipewyan Texts
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 1
New York, 1912

► Themes of the story

Trickster: The protagonist uses cunning and deception to escape from the giant.

Mythical Creatures: The giant, Holdile, represents a mythical being within the narrative.

Conflict with Nature: The man’s entrapment in sunbeams and his navigation through the muskeg highlight struggles against natural forces.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Chipewyan Lore

Learn more about the Chipewyan people

A man was walking alone one time when something happened to him. Although he could not see anything when he looked about, he took his knife and began slashing the air as he turned from side to side. He found himself tied up worse than before and that he had been caught in sunbeams which someone had set for a snare. After a time he heard someone coming along, saying to himself, “I think I feel something.” Before the person came to him, the man hit himself and covered himself with his own blood. The giant came to him and thinking him dead put him in a sack. It was the giant, Holdile, who eats men. He started away carrying the man on his back. He put him down occasionally to rest. The man tried to make no noise but sniffled in spite of himself. “I heard something,” the giant said and took the load off.

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Then he tickled the man all over on his hands, feet, and body. The man was unusually powerful and was able to refrain from laughing. He put him back in the sack and carried him to his home. He hung the sack on a tree and went away to the top of a hill to cut some sticks with which to make spits for roasting the kidneys.

When he had gone away, the man began to swing himself gently in the sack, until he fell down. The young ones called out, “Father, your caribou is alive.” The man jumped up, put ashes in the children’s mouths and ran away. The giant ran after him. They came to an island that lay in the midst of the muskeg. They ran around it until he was tired. The giant shouted to the man. “My son, make a fire for me, I am cold.” He had been sweating and his clothes were wet. They stood by the fire drying themselves. The giant hung his cape up to dry and lay down with his back to the fire. Soon the man broke a piece of wood. “What did you do that for?” asked the giant. “I am going to fix the fire with it,” the man said. Then he told him, “Grandfather, your cape fell into the fire.” The man had pushed it in with the stick. He struck the giant and killed him with the same stick that he had used to push the cape into the fire. After a time, he came to life again. The man ran away but the giant ran after him. The giant is still hunting men.

The discovery of metal by a captive woman

A woman, captured by the Eskimo, escapes with her child. After a long journey, she encounters a vast herd of caribou, from which she secures meat. Leaving her greedy child behind, she continues alone and discovers a hill of metal. She collects some and later shares its location with strangers, believed to be Europeans, introducing them to metal. The stone markers she erected to retrace her path reportedly grew large over time.

Source:
Chipewyan Texts
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 1
New York, 1912

► Themes of the story

Quest: The woman’s journey to escape captivity and her subsequent travels in search of sustenance and safety represent a quest.

Origin of Things: The story provides an explanation for the origin of metal possession among certain people, attributing it to the woman’s discovery.

Cultural Heroes: The woman serves as a foundational figure who brings the knowledge of metal to others, significantly impacting their society.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Chipewyan Lore

Learn more about the Chipewyan people

This myth is briefly given by Samuel Hearne (A Journey from Prince of Wales’ Port in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean, London, 1795), in reference to the copper mines near Coppermine River which he visited in 1771, Petitot secured this myth at Cold Lake in 1881 with the interesting additional incident of the woman gradually sinking into the mountain. This conclusion of the story was also given by the informant from whom text 13 was secured. He added that the shallow place crossed by the woman was caused by the body of a giant who fell there in a combat.

Once a woman was stolen by the Eskimo. After she had lived with them for some time and had a child, she went away, taking it with her. She went a long distance killing birds and rabbits for food. The child was very greedy often eating everything up away from its mother. After a time they came to a large lake where she sat and cried. While she was sitting there she saw a wolf walking through the water. She wondered how he was able to cross the lake. He came up to her and licked the tears from her eyes. She soon got up and broke off two sticks. “I want to see how deep the water is,” she said to herself. She waded far out into the lake but the water was only a little below her knees. Finally, she could not see the land behind her. It grew dark but she continued to wade until morning. Toward evening of the next day, there was something behind that looked like land. “The Eskimo must be following me,” she thought. Ahead of her there also seemed to be land. When she came close to the shore, whatever it was behind her was also approaching. She walked very fast; the water was always at the same depth. When she came to the land, she found that it was a vast herd of caribou that was following her. She had only an awl with her but tying it to a stick she sat with it by the trail. As they came by her, she speared them. There were so many of them that they looked like land. They continued passing her until the trail was worn down so deep that only their horns stuck up. When she had killed a large number, she began drying the meat so that she could carry it with her. “I am going to leave that greedy boy behind,” she said to herself. “I will make some soup for him, in a paunch.”

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“My son, wait here for me, I am going to carry the meat to the top of the hill,” she said to him. She started away without him. When she came to the top of the first hill she looked back and saw that he was still sitting there, eating. She went on to the top of another hill and from there she could still see him eating. The woman walked along alone. When it was night she saw a fire toward which she continued walking. She walked on for many days and nights. Every night she could see the fire. When she came to it, she found it was metal. She gathered up the best pieces and placed them in her blanket and carried them with her. As she went back she piled stones on top of each other on the tops of all the hills, so that she would know the way if she wished to return. Finally, she came to some kind of people whom she did not know. When they saw that she had metal they asked her where she got it. “Very far away, in that direction, there is one hill of nothing else. It was there that I found it.” “Take us to it,” they said to her. She went with these people who are believed to have been Frenchmen [any European except an Englishman]. Ever after, they knew about metal and were the only people who possessed it. The stones which she placed one above the other were always to be seen after that. They say the stones have now grown to be very large.

Raised-by-His-Grandmother

An old woman discovers a crying infant under a caribou chip and decides to raise him. The boy, often requesting young caribou feet, faces denial from others. He then exhibits mystical abilities, providing food and transforming into a caribou to supply meat for his grandmother. This tale, “Raised-by-His-Grandmother,” originates from the Chipewyan people and highlights themes of transformation and resourcefulness.

Source:
Chipewyan Texts
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 1
New York, 1912

► Themes of the story

Sacred Spaces: The narrative includes significant locations, such as the place where the boy is found and the area abundant with caribou, which hold spiritual importance.

Healers and Cures: The boy’s actions provide sustenance and survival for his grandmother, acting as a form of healing and support.

Ancestral Spirits: The boy’s origin and abilities may suggest a connection to ancestral or spiritual entities, influencing the present.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Chipewyan Lore

Learn more about the Chipewyan people

Dr. Lowie secured the tale here given in much the same form at Lake Athabaska. Petitot gives four versions two of which he secured at Great Slave Lake, one from a Chipewyan, and one from a Yellow Knife in 1863. The third version was secured at Lake Athabaska in 1859 and the fourth one from a Caribou Eater of Hudson Bay and Churchhill River. In these versions from Petitot, Raised-by-his-grandmother is a person of great power who comes to relieve the natives to whom the caribou migrations have ceased. He restores the caribou on the condition of being given the tips of their tongues as tribute and when the tribute fails, he leaves them. He is ever after invoked as the deity in charge of caribou. According to one version, he joins the musk ox and to another the bear. Evidently then, this myth is related to a caribou hunting ceremony which, judging from their almost complete reliance on that animal for food, was probably the most important of their ceremonies.

An old woman heard a little child crying. After she had looked for him some time she discovered him sitting under a caribou chip. As he was a very little child she put him in her mitten, carried him home, and undertook to raise him. Whenever caribou were killed, and his grandmother went out after meat, the boy asked her to bring him the feet of the young caribou. One time when she went out after meat, the boy sat and waited for her return. When he saw her coming, he began calling to her, “Grandmother, the feet, the feet.” “Grandson,” his grandmother said, “the feet are not for you. You are not the only child. ‘He is always asking for young caribou feet. This time he shall not have them,’ they said about you.” “Let them all freeze, let them freeze,” he said. “What will your uncles do, if you say that?” his grandmother asked. “’May they find the last poor bear, the last poor bear,’ you may say,” he said. Then he told his grandmother when they moved camp, “Do not take me along.” “What will we do? We shall die for want of meat,” she said. “No, we will not die,” the boy replied.

When the people had all moved away, the boy went back to the campsites and pulled away the partly burned sticks from the fireplaces. After a while, he came to the deserted camp of his uncles where he found the partly burned feet and hoofs of the caribou. “It looks like partly burned hoofs right here,” the boy said to his grandmother. “Grandmother, carry me over in that direction.” She took him on her back and carried him. When she had gone a long way she put him down to rest. “Grandmother, sit there and fish in that small slough.” “There are not any fish there, grandson,” she replied. “Yes, there are,” he said. The old woman then cut a hole through the ice and let down a hook into the water of the small slough. She immediately pulled out a large trout. “Put the hook in again,” the boy said. When she put the hook down again, she pulled out a jackfish. “That is enough,” the boy said. “We will camp not far from here.” She made a shelter of spruce boughs in which they lived for some time.

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“Make snowshoes for me,” the boy said one day to his grandmother. She made him small round snowshoes. Then he asked her to make him some arrows. When she made them he wanted her to dress him. As soon as she had done so, he said, “Put on my snowshoes. I am going outside a little way to play.” When he had been gone some time his grandmother went out to look for him. She followed his tracks for some distance and then came where his snowshoes, his arrows, and his poor little clothes were lying. From that place there was only a line of caribou tracks. His grandmother turned back, crying, and saying to herself, “My little grandson has left me and become a caribou.” When she got back to her camp, she sat far into the night waiting for him and crying. She heard something outside and later heard a noise again. “What can it be,” she thought. It was Raised-by-his-grandmother who came into the house and said, “Take off my belt.” As his grandmother loosened it, many caribou tongues fell out. “We will go after them tomorrow,” he said. “Where I went, there were many caribou.”

The next day, as his grandmother was carrying him along, the boy pointed the way saying, “It is over there.” When they came to the top of a hill near a large lake she saw something lying on the ice. “There they are,” the boy said. As they were walking along together on the lake, he said, “That young caribou, the farthest one that lies dead over there, laughed too much at me. Roast its head for me.” She saw that he had killed many caribou. While he was playing with them, he bit their tongues and killed them all. They camped there by the shore of the lake, where the old woman dressed the caribou and brought them into the camp. “I am going to play with the head you roasted for me, grandmother,” the boy said. He took it out-of-doors to play with, and the magpies ate it up.

After a while, without his grandmother’s knowledge, the boy went to the place where those who had left them had camped. He found where they had scraped the snow from the ice to fish. All the people had frozen except his uncles who had found a bear. The uncles found the tracks of a young caribou on the ice and the spruce with which he had cleared it of snow. “Perhaps it was not just a caribou that did it,” the uncles said to each other. “May be it was the small child we left behind which mother was carrying.” They followed the tracks of the caribou until they came to a big lake. There they found where he had walked along with small round snowshoes. These tracks led them to the place where Raised-by-his-grandmother was living with her. They had much meat there.

The Monster Bird

Two young men embark on a journey, initially using geese to pull their canoe. After consuming the geese, they receive sustenance and guidance from wolves, who warn them not to retrieve arrows stuck in trees. Ignoring this advice, one man climbs a tree after his arrow, leading him to ascend into the sky. There, he encounters an old woman and her two daughters, who deceive and entrap him underground. Wolves eventually rescue him, providing enchanted arrows and further counsel for his journey.

Source:
Chipewyan Texts
by Pliny Earle Goddard
The American Museum of Natural History – Anthropological Papers
Volume X, Part 1
New York, 1912

► Themes of the story

Quest: The young men undertake a journey with uncertain outcomes, seeking sustenance and adventure.

Forbidden Knowledge: Despite warnings from the wolves, one young man seeks to retrieve an arrow from a tree, leading to unforeseen consequences.

Journey to the Otherworld: The protagonist undergoes a significant change by ascending to the sky, entering a new realm, and facing challenges that alter his understanding and circumstances.

► From the same Region or People

North America
- Sub-Arctic Region
  - Chipewyan Lore

Learn more about the Chipewyan people

Petitot, Emile (Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, Paris, 1886) secured a version of this myth from a native of Great Slave Lake which differs in the beginning in telling of the father of the two young men who sent them out to hunt and in the omission at the end of the capture of the young man and his second imprisonment in the nest. He also includes a myth recorded by Faraud in 1859 of very different import in which the same characters, both human and supernatural appear. Dr. Lowie’s version obtained at Fort Chipewyan is exactly parallel except that giants first befriended them instead of wolves and that the burning of the nest is omitted.

In the beginning, two young men secured some geese and tied them to their canoe so that they might be drawn through the water by them. The young men lay down in the canoe, saying to the geese, “Take us wherever your land may be.” When they stood up, they found the geese full grown. As they were without food, they killed them, built a fire, and cooked and ate them, and when they had finished their meal, continued their journey.

After they had gone a long distance, they again found themselves without food. Some wolves came to them and fed them with fat and pemmican. “Do not eat it all,” the wolves warned them, “leave some to eat in the morning after you have slept.” The wolves also gave them arrows but cautioned them as to their use and said, “If you should shoot grouse, after a time, and the arrow sticks up in a tree, do not climb up to get it.” The young men resumed their journey. After a time, one of them shot grouse and his arrow fell rather high on a tree. Not heeding the warning of the wolves, he said to his companion, “I am going to get it.” “No,” said the other, “the wolves told us not to do that.” Thinking the arrow was not very high, he stood on something and reached toward it. The arrow moved still further out of his reach and the young man involuntarily ascended toward the sky after it.

The one who had ascended to the sky traveled alone until he came where a tipi stood. He found an old woman there who blackened his face with a coal. He heard two girls laughing in the brush behind the house.

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When they came in, they said, “Mother, what sort of a bad animal has come here?” They laughed at him a long time, and then went out again into the brush. The old woman immediately washed his face and combed his hair. Soon he heard the girls talking again, saying, “We will go in again and laugh at that thing which came.” As soon as they came in each said, “I would like to have that man. I will marry him.” That night, one lay down on either side of him. After a time, when the man woke up, he found he was under the ground and could not move. In the morning, he heard the family going away. He heard the two girls laughing as they started; but the old woman was crying, and saying to herself, “They have done that way to many nice men who have come to me.” Not long after that he heard some wolves coming to the campsite. “What has happened?” one of them said, “There is the smell of a live man.” One of the wolves, named Ebedaholtihe, was addressed, “There is a man under the ground. We will take him out. Go and get the partly chewed bone we left behind the old camp.” The man heard someone tapping with a spear on the ground as he ran along. Soon he heard the same sounds as the wolf returned. They tried to dig with the rib which he had brought, but it broke. “Get something else,” he heard him say. He went again and brought the leg bone of a moose which has the two side bones and dew claws. That did not break and with it they soon dug the man out. Then he found it was the wolves who had done all this.

The wolves then gave him two arrows and directions for their use. “This arrow is female,” one of them said, “and this one is male. If when you hunt, a cow moose runs away into the brush, you must shoot this female arrow toward the place. But if a bull moose runs into the brush, shoot in that direction with the male arrow. When you have killed a moose, take the intestines and tie them back and forth on a tree. Then you must tell one of the girls that you have left a rope with which she shall carry the moose. If her rope breaks and she begins to curse we will attend to her should we hear her saying, ‘mean wolf’.”

Then the man went on, following the tracks of the women. When he came close to them, he began to hunt. Seeing where a cow moose had run into the brush, he shot the female arrow. Where a bull moose had run in, he shot the male arrow. He found that each of his arrows had killed a moose. He then went where the people had camped and said to the two girls, “Go and get the moose I have killed.” To one of the girls whose name was Weasel-vermin he said, “You need not take a rope with you, for I have left one for you.” He told the other girl called Mice-vermin, to take a rope. The girls started for the moose, the man following along with them. When they came near the place where the moose were lying, he said to Weasel-vermin, “You get the one that is over there.” He found that each of the girls was accustomed to carry an entire moose on her back at one time. Weasel-vermin found that he meant the intestines when he told her that he left a rope hanging in the tree for her. When she attempted to carry the moose whole with it, the rope began to break. She began to curse and finally said, “mean wolf.” Immediately, he heard her running in a circle and shouting. When he came to the place, he found only some human hair lying there, and the marks on the snow where the body had been dragged away. He ran immediately to the other girl and pulled her clothes off. Mice ran under the snow. He found that she was a mouse and the other girl a weasel. After that, she became a person and married the man. The man lived there with his mother-in-law.

He remained there for considerable time. He killed many moose but did not know what became of the skins of the moose which he killed. His mother-in-law had dressed just one of them. After a time, she said to him, “Your relatives are lonesome and I do not like that. There is a hole through the sky here ahead of us. Let us go there.” When they came to the place, she wrapped the man in the one moose hide she had dressed. He found that she had made rope of the other hides. With the rope she lowered the man. “When you feel yourself touching the ground,” she told him, “you must untie the rope and pull it several times.” After a time, he thought he felt the ground under him. He crawled out of the hide, pulled the rope repeatedly, and it disappeared toward the sky. When he looked about he was astonished to find that he was not yet on the ground but on the nest of the flying things which feed upon people. Human bones were lying about. A young one of the birds was sitting there. He took a liking to the man and said to him, “I usually eat people but you shall live. Sit here under my wings.” The bird was so large that a person could hide under it. Soon it spoke to him again, saying, “After a while, it will be dark as if it were night. It will be my mother coming. When it becomes light again, my father will come.” After a short time it grew dark, and the mother bird lit there. She said to the young one, “I smell a human odor coming from you.” “Oh, its the human remains lying there which you brought,” the young one told its mother. “No, it is not. It is the odor of a living person, which I smell coming from you,” the mother replied. When she had found the man, the young one said, “You shall not do anything to him, he will live. If you kill him you must kill me too.”

After a time it became light again and the father bird arrived. He said the same things to the young one and received the same replies. On account of that the man was allowed to live. When they had both gone off again, the young one said to the man, “I am going to put my wings on you. You shall fly across.” The man found that the nest was on an island and that there were rapids on either side in the large stream flowing there. The bird put the wings on the man saying to him, “Fly around here until you are sure you can fly across.” The man flew about the nest a little way until he felt certain he could fly across the stream. “Do not put my wings right on the ground, lean them against a tree,” the young bird told him. “On your way home, do not travel at night. Even if you think you have not far to go, lie down wherever night overtakes you.”

Then the man flew across from the nest, took off the wings, and leaned them against a tree. From there he started toward the place where his relatives used to live. He came where a beaver had his house and commenced to dig it out. After a time, it became dark without his knowing it. “The house is not far away. I will not sleep here since it is so close by,” he said to himself and started on although it was dark. As he walked along, he carried his spear with which he had been chiseling for the beaver. Suddenly, he felt himself being taken up into the air without visible cause. He found that Hotelbale, the bird monster, had taken him away. When he had been carried a long distance, above a high rock he was thrown down upon it. Catching the top of the rock with the spear, he jumped over it and saved himself. Again, he was caught and carried away. When he was thrown again upon a sharp rock, he placed the end of his spear against it and jumped over it. He found that this rock was covered on both sides with dried human blood where the people had been killed. He was carried, still alive, to the young bird. When the young one saw him it said, “This is my grandchild, that I love. This is the one I said you must not kill. If you kill it, you must kill me too.” For that reason he was not killed. “You shall remain here,” the young one said to him, and he lived there with him.

When he had been there some little time, he began to think how he might kill them. They slept only in the daytime. He placed a quantity of hay and small brush on the tree under the nest. When there was much of it there, the old one said, “Grandson, why are you doing that?” “Oh, I am playing with it,” he replied. After some time he spoke to the old bird, “Grandfather, let me have your firedrill. I want to play with it.” He addressed Hotelbale, as grandfather. He was given the firedrill. Then when they were asleep, during the day, he set the brush and hay on fire and burned the nest with them in it. They lay with their wings all burned. Taking a club he struck the old birds on the crowns of their heads and killed them, but he let the young one live, rubbing the burned portions of its wings away. He said to it, “If you had been the only one, I would not have done it; but your parents have killed many of my relatives.”

After that, there were no such monsters but the young one was still alive. Someone has recently heard from the west that it has grown again.

A man who has knowledge of magic does not get killed.