The First Woman
This story is my favorite in the Alaskan Legends unit thus far. It talks of the world being populated by men. There is one woman and two men go to claim her. They fight over her and rip her in 2. The top half of the woman is taken to the North and the bottom half of the woman is taken to the South. The North and the South begin to make wood carvings to "complete" their woman. The woman in the South was a good dancer because she had legs, but was poor at needlepoint because her hands were wooden. The woman of the North was a poor dancer, but was excellent at needlepoint because of her real hands. So it was like this universally - women in the North were good at needlepoint and women in the South were good dancers.
The Boy In the Moon
This is another nice story. It explains how the moon and the sun came to be. A lazy little boy has fallen in love with a girl. While unwatched, the little girl climbs a ladder leading into the sky. The boy chases after her, but he was too late. The girl became the sun and the boy became the moon. He chases the sun, but is never able to catch up to her. He is without food, so gets hungry and wanes. Then, the sun stretches out a platter of meat and berries to the moon, and the moon becomes full again. I love stories like this...creation-type stories.
The Wolves and the Deer
This story explains why the deer are afraid of wolves. They are both invited to a feast where the wolves tell the deer to laugh with their mouths wide open because no one laughed with a closed mouth. So, the deer laughed and the wolves saw that they had no teeth and attacked the deer. Only a few deer survived. Now deer are afraid of wolves. (if it's got wolves or sharks in the story, I'M IN!)
Reading Diary A:
The Origin of the Tides
This was a great story. There is a recurrent theme throughout our Myth & Folklore class....the stories generated by these indigenous peoples was their way of explaining the occurrences in nature. In this story, Qa is always shaping rocks. He finds a rock in the middle of the world and creates a home underneath it. He then carves a lid for this and twice a day a man opens the lid and twice a day the man closes the lid. This opening and closing of the lid explains high tide and low tide.
Raven and the Seals
This story was interesting, but a little confusing. Not because I couldn't understand what was going on, but I guess because I expected a moral to the story. This story explains a raven who comes upon a man and his house. He tells the man he will be his friend. The raven proceeds to eat all the seals on the beach and then eats the man (some friend). He takes his canoe and goes out and catches more seals to eat. He asks a stump if it is envious of him (the raven). Then the stump sits on the seals so the raven can't get to them to eat. He is always hungry. WEIRD, but interesting!
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| Inside Passage Alaska - National Geographic Expedition |
Bibliography (Diaries A & B):
Reading Unit: Alaskan Legends. Web Source: Alaskan Legends
Image: Inside Passage Alaska - National Geographic Expedition. Web Source: Alaskan Wilderness
The Origin of the Tides. Web Source: Origin of the Tides
Raven and the Seals. Web Source: Raven and the Seals
The First Woman. Web Source: The First Woman
The Boy in the Moon. Web Source: The Boy In the Moon
The Wolves and the Deer. Web Source: The Wolves and the Deer
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