page_title: Raven Tales
section_title: The Birth of Raven
hierarchical_section_title: Raven Tales / Traditional myths / Athabaskan / Tahltan / The Birth of Raven
caption_attribution_description: English: The Story of Fog Woman and Raven, sculpture by Dempsey Bob: “Raven found out that Fog Woman had salmon, so he married her to get the salmon. The salmon made Raven wealthy and for a while he was content. Eventually, Raven became bored and mistreated Fog Woman, so she left Raven. Fog Woman called back the salmon that she gave to Raven, even the salmon in his smoke house. Raven realized his mistake and tried to grab her, but she turned to fog. Still, Fog Woman wanted the people to have the salmon, so once a year the salmon return to the streams to spawn and bring food to the people.”
context_page_description: Raven Tales are the traditional human and animal creation stories of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. They are also found among Athabaskan-speaking peoples and others. Raven stories exist in nearly all of the First Nations throughout the region but are most prominent in the tales of the Tlingit and Tahltan people.
  Raven and eagle are known by many different names by many different peoples and is an important figure amongst written and verbal stories. His tales are passed down through the generations of story tellers of the people and are of cultural and historical significance. It's important to note that, from some storytellers' perspective, Native myths such as the Raven Tales, as opposed to tall tales and little stories for children, are not entertainment and are cultural property of the clan or individual that the story originates from. It is customary that others should not tell stories that are owned by another clan, especially if they do not live in the same area.
  While each culture's stories of the Raven are different, there are even those that share the same title; certain attributes of Raven remain the same.
context_section_description: They claim that Big-Crow was born miraculously as the youngest of many brothers in the northern Tlingit country and was raised speaking the local language.  He was separated from his father at birth and his father is never spoken of in all of their stories.  Raven was born, the third child of a woman whose previous two boys were killed by her uncle.  Each time the woman gave birth, her uncle would offer to teach them to hunt once they were old enough; each time he would take them out on a canoe and trick them, he would instruct the boys to sit on the edge of the canoe, at which point he would rock the canoe, forcing them to fall into the water where he would leave them to drown.
  But her third child was Raven who took well to carving.  Just as he'd done 2 times before, her uncle asked if he could teach Raven how to hunt after he'd grown a few years.  Several times she refused her uncle until Raven insisted that she allow him to go.  So they went out to sea and the same scenario played out.  Raven fell into the water but rather than drown, he took one of the toy canoes he had carved and made it grow into a full size canoe.  He went straight back to his mother and told of what his uncle had done.
  Twice more the uncle tried to drown Raven in the same manner but Raven outsmarted him each time until the uncle gave up and no longer took Raven hunting but would go alone.
  As Raven grew into a man, he met the uncle's wife where he tried to play with her.  He tickled the girl and two birds flew out from under her arms, a bluejay and a woodpecker; and the girl died.  When the uncle returned from his hunt, he saw that his wife had died and he intended to kill Raven again, but this time in rage rather than trickery.  But once again, Raven escaped with his canoe carvings.  But when Raven escaped this time, he did not return home and his journey began; never to return to his home.
  He starting off travelling by canoe along the seashore all alone but would stop whenever he came upon a village.  When he met people whom he saw take advantage of others or use their power for evil, he would kill in his efforts to deprive them of power.
  Raven travelled for many years along the coast of the Tlingit territory, first travelling south, having started in the north until he had gone so far south, beyond Tlingit territory until he reached the Mink people at which point he turned around and continued back the other direction.  He did this north south, south north journey for several years.  Not until his work along the coast was done, did he head inland along the Stikine river all the way to its source.  He also traveled along the Nass, Skeena, and Taku Rivers and all of their many streams never staying in one place for very long and never traveling far off from the water ways.  Through his inland journeys he met the Kaska, the Haida, and other nations to the east.
  Later in life, when Raven had done all the work he could do, he travelled back out to the coastal regions guided by the setting sun until he disappeared mysteriously.  The only suggestion is that he may have gone to live with the Kanu'gu and other ancient gods on an island far out into the ocean where they believed weather was created from.
  As the Raven stories continue after "The Birth of Raven", many stories follow:
  "Origin of the Tides"
  "Origin of Fresh Water"
  "Origin of Olachen"
  "Origin of Daylight"
  "Raven and the Salmon"
  "Raven Creates the Salmon and Teaches the People"
  "Raven Institutes Birth and Death"
  "Raven and the Grizzly-Bear"
  "Raven Paints the Bird"
  "Raven Paints his Men for War"
  "The Tree Eats the Bird"
  "Raven Kills Pitch-Man"
  "Raven and His Sister"
  "Raven Tires to Marry a Princess"
  "Raven in the Country of the Tahltan"
  "Raven and Kanu'gu"
  "Raven and the Haida"
  "Raven Institutes the Kuwega'n Ceremonies"
  "Raven Makes the Wolf Women Good-Looking"
  "Raven Considers how to Provide for the People"
  "The Origin of Birth and Death"
  "Raven Curtails the Powers of Game"
  "Raven Steals Fire"
  "Raven Ballasts the Earth"
  "Raven Makes Lakes"
  "Raven Makes Mud"
  "Raven Creates Bear"
  "Raven and Bear
caption: Dempsey Bob's The Story of Fog Woman and Raven, exhibited at Vancouver International Airport, tells how Raven's greed resulted in salmon run.
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