Potlatches were another native custom the missionaries approached with disfavor. Only sinful, ignorant natives could debauch and debase themselves in such a manner. In these recitals Zuboff, through the two Harrises, explains both Tlingit customs and repeats ethnic tales in the hope that they will be preserved in another form and for another audience. At the time of the telling, before 1985, Zuboff was 80 years old and a patient at the Indian Health Service Hospital. He undoubtedly captured the attention of the class.
Totem poles are family memorials.
The campfire cremation of the ogre gave rise to mosquitos, which have plagued the Northwest ever since. In The Mythology of North America by John Bierhorst, mosquitos have a similar origin in the fly ash from a cannibal's cremation, but the preamble was different. Zuboff's tales are individual, stand-alone stories. The cycles resemble Uncle Remus tales in following the endless adventures of a hero-prankster. The prankster of the Northwest is Raven.