Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends
This week I chose to finish off the Native American reading unit by reading about Alaskan Legends. Growing up in Oklahoma, I am more familiar with tales from the Plains Indians and I was really interested in reading stories from another region of the United States. Overall, I was really surprised at the emphasis these Alaskan Legends put on the raven. In the reading I enjoyed the story Raven and the Marmot
Raven and the Marmot
In the story Raven and the Marmot, the Raven was flying overhead when he saw the hole of a marmot. Wanting the eat the marmot, Raven blocked the hole so that when the marmot returned it would not be able to escape into its' home. The plan seemed to work because the marmot returned and could not hide in his hole, but the marmot had a plan. The marmot convinced Raven to dance so as a final request and asked the Raven to close its' eyes. The raven agreed and then the marmot jumped between the raven's legs and hid. I thought this was an interesting story because the Raven actually gets outsmarted even though in quite a few of the other stories the raven seems to be powerful and intelligent. If I were to retell the story I could put it in first person for either the raven or the marmot. I could also change them from animals to humans and make the raven a true villain wanting to kidnap the marmot or something along those lines. I also think that it would be interesting to add more details to the story in order to give a better description of the setting since in the original there was relatively no description of the surroundings, time, or origins of the raven or marmot.
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| (Raven, credit to Philip Henry Gosse) |
Bibliography
Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). link
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